Useful Lies: The Limits of Enlightening the Common Man : Frederick the Great and Franco-German Cultural Transfer

This article asks if the role of the Enlightenment philosopher was, as understood by contemporaries, to work against elites, or to underpin them. Concentrating particularly on the arch-elitist Frederick the Great and his court philosophers, we will track the notion of the elite and their position as holders of truth and enlighteners. The central tenet of the debate will concern the notion of lying to the masses and the utility of truth. It will be shown that advocacy of absolute truth was rare and often dissimulated by philosophers keen to avoid censure. This dividing line will be used to show the cultural transfer of Francophone debates to the German intellectual sphere

Charles-Louis de Secondat Montesquieu: Esprit des lois [The Spirit of Laws]

Encyclopedia article on Montesquieu's Spirit of the Law