Voltaire on the Soul

What does Voltaire have to say about the soul? A lot, and in fact very little. The question of the soul is a question of identity, spirituality and central really to the philosophical pondering of virtually every philosopher and thinker in most ages. What is the soul? Is it something physical? Is it something else? Does it really matter?

Voltaire, in his normal visceral way attacks and mocks just about everything out there in a wordy way to say something pretty bland, we don't know much about the soul because we can't know very much about the soul. He points out that Moses didn't mention much about the subject because all of his laws had to deal with the here and now and temporal aspects of life. Since, he seems to be a pretty important figure in the history of things it would be odd that he doesn't say anything about the subject if it's important. Voltaire points out that the Jewish notions of the soul aren't formulated until much later than Moses and that by the time three ideas of the soul in Jewish theology come about another mildly important figure goes out of his way to denounce the three sects: the Sadducees, Pharisees and Essenes.

The Sadducees believed that the soul would perish with the body. The Pharisees believed in a transmigration of the soul to some extent and the Essenes believed that the soul was immortal. Of course, the New Testament does show that Jesus was harsh on the Sadducees and Pharisees (the Essenes weren't specifically mentioned by name) but this harshness was derived from their hypocritical acts and not so much their theological positions but Voltaire happens to enjoy the straw man game so I'll indulge him.

Voltaire does make some hard points about the nature of the soul though. We have so many (as did Voltaire) contemporaries of our age who have vast amounts of knowledge of the entity that we call the soul. Nevermind that countless thinkers have wrapped their life's work around this subject only to come up with vague and partial understandings, young men and women of our age are experts on this material (or immaterial depending on their intellectual bent). Can we that are physical really have a knowledge of something that is not physical with absolute certainty? He points to a no. I think I agree with him. Though, in his mocking way he points to "revelation" as a possible means of knowledge of the soul. In this I think that he is being a bit sarcastic but I don't find the notion of divine revelation into the matter so worthy of scorn. I think that it is possible that revelation plays a crucial role in the understanding of things beyond the mere physical in human beings and why should the notion of the soul be any different?