Comment les Monades Conduisent Au Scepticisme

Wolff’s review of Leibniz’metaphysics is discussed in the correspondence between Voltaire and Frederick, the future Frederick II. Frederick attempts to introduce and to convert Voltaire to Wolffianism. Even though he declares it remarkable, Voltaire has little esteem for the Wolffian method. Rejecting Baylian fideism, Frederick is unwilling to renounce voluntarily the knowledge that can be acquired through reasoning. According to Voltaire, metaphysical truths remain inaccessible. The only defensible position is hence that of metaphysical scepticism. Frederick acknowledges this: having studied the sciences and observed the spirit of men, the inclination towards scepticism is natural. Hence, the debate on monads has led Frederick to renounce his previous Wolffianism. He is ready to become the perfect despot, pragmatic and realistic, a follower of the French Enlightenment.     

Un pasteur actuaire? Ordre de la mortalité, durée de la vie et rentes viagères dansL’Ordre divin de Johann Peter Süssmilch

The government of Providence builds the order which pastor Süßmilch sees in the demographic events and especially the order of mortality. God governs the length of human life and assigns to each person a just balance between fear of death and expectation of life. This authorizes Süßmilch to clarify the notions of probable life and life expectancy with the design to treat of their main application in the field of political arithmetic, that is the computations of Government loans under the form of annuities on lives. So he treats of an important question which concerns the history of actuarial calculation as well as the history of probability, of statistics and demography. We cannot forget also the political and philosophical points of view which the pastor underlines vividly: what sort of contract joins the individual together with the State? And, above all, what sort of contract joins the creature and his God? This study of the contingent but optimal regularities which Providence makes in the world builds an important contribution to the physico-theological current.