":Voltaire as an egalitarian is about the funniest thing I've heard in a long time; of course he was not (and harldy any of the Enlightenment philosophes were). Does that diminish his statue as a thinker? Of course not; non-conformity with 21st-century sensibilities hardly matters in any assessment of an 18th-century thinker. As for the discussion of Voltaire's racism/anti-semitism we obviously must apply similar principles apply. Throwing in a few decontextualised quotes about Voltaire's view on Jews and black people to demonstrate that he was a raving racist is simply meaningless. If these issues are to be included in the entry at all (which I doubt they warrant), then surely they need contextualisation. For instance, Voltaire's discussion on Jews surely must be understood in the context of his general account of revealed religion, and must be set in the context of 18th-century censorship (which often led writers to attack the Jews whilst actually aiming at their Christian off-spring). Similarly, Voltaire's views on non-white people cannot be understood outside the context of his general framework of savagery, barbarism, civilisation and historical development. If people started to read Voltaire in such contexts, then they would start to understand that the question of whether Voltaire was a ""racist, anti-semitist, egalitarian, etc.""? is pretty much meaningless and doesn't increase our understanding of him at all. However, given the above discussion, I sort of doubt whether wikipedia readers/editors understand enough history to appreciate this. In any case I give it a go, by deleting the presently pointless section on Voltaire's views on race ....

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