Voltaire wrote about Adam Smith, “This Smith is an Excellent man! We have nothing to compare with him, and I am embarrassed for my dear compatriots.”
Smith had similar positive opinions of Voltaire’s work.
Burke wrote about Voltaire, he “has the merit of writing agreeably, and nobody has ever united blasphemy and obscenity so happily together.”
Burke wrote about Smith “he raises from this simple truth, one of the most beautiful fabrics of moral theory, that has perhaps ever appeared. “
Smith argued he and Burke thought identically.
What information can reconcile the fact that Voltaire and Smith had similar views in their writings and Burke and Smith were similar, but Burke strongly disagreed with Voltaire?
Yea I'm in Netter's class too.
It's important to remember that these men weren't exactly academically specialized nor did they limit themselves to any discipline. Their works were often very broad and loosely connected constructs and their worldviews were hardly airtight or exhaustive. You could argue that this is exactly one of the reasons as to why they managed to provide "revolutionary" perspectives, but that's an entirely different argument. Point is, I'm certain that you could find similarities between Voltaire and Smith, just as you could find similarities between Burke and Voltaire. That doesn't mean that their methods, work or even fundamental arguments are the same or even similar. From my present-day perspective, subjected to increased specialization and pillarisation, I would classify the legacy of each author as distinctly unique and different. Voltaire was more historically and culturally inclined, Burke more politically and economically - empirical even, while Smith was mostly focused on economics. They might have all held opinions and shared sentiments on social issues. Heck, it would even make sense to argue how their worldview was fairly similar given how they all lived around the same period and in comparable circles. However, that doesn't imply that their entire identity or body of work has to be in agreement.