'History is but a pack of tricks we play on the dead'. The words are Voltaire's - and characteristic of him they are too: gently provocative and not without some ring of truth to them either. I read somewhere (I forget where) that Voltaire coined the phrase 'philosophy of history' and remarks of this sort fit naturally within the oeuvre of a writer who was much preoccupied with the course of history, the passing of time and the meaning of progress. One of the chief targets of Voltaire's sarcastic arrows was the Christian church, a church which to his mind had been ravaged and made to look absurd by the new uncertainties and cultural shifts which had accompanied the movement towards a more modern age. 'Movement', it should be stressed, rather than progress. For whereas some more optimistic thinkers perceived in the new age of mechanisation and mass production, in the burgeoning of new and purportedly less constricted cultural forms, an inexorable forward 'push' in the course of human affairs, Voltaire resisted the temptation to see things this way.
It would be a mistake to hail him as a visionary in this respect, as an inaugurator of a new discourse concerned with the nature and problems of history. Questions concerning the nature and trajectory (or lack thereof) of history had puzzled thinkers for many previous centuries and had received a wide variety of answers. Voltaire's suspicion of progress (was it really happening?) fits within a broader trend here. But he undoubtedly played an important part in the move toward formally recognising the importance of a sub-category of philosophical questions concerning the character of history. These questions would play a leading role in shaping some of the key landmarks of 19th century philosophy - particularly, the works of Hegel and Marx.
I don't know if he was onto anything but he certainly heightened awareness of these questions - questions which are a matter of continuing interest to me.
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