Micromégas
E36407
Micromégas is a satirical philosophical novella by Voltaire that uses the travels of extraterrestrial beings to critique human nature, religion, and pretensions to knowledge.
Aliases (1)
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
novella
→
philosophical fiction work → satire → |
| aimsTo |
encourage critical thinking about dogma
→
relativize human importance in the universe → |
| author |
Voltaire
→
|
| countryOfOrigin |
France
→
|
| genre |
philosophical novella
→
satire → science fiction precursor → |
| hasSatiricalElement |
mockery of anthropocentrism
→
mockery of philosophical pedantry → mockery of theological disputes → |
| influencedBy |
Cartesian and Newtonian cosmology
→
scientific discoveries of the 17th and 18th centuries → |
| literaryForm |
prose narrative
→
|
| literaryMovement |
French Enlightenment
→
|
| mainCharacter |
Micromégas (giant extraterrestrial philosopher)
→
Saturnian (inhabitant of Saturn) → |
| medium |
text
→
|
| narrativeDevice |
encounter between giants and humans
→
interplanetary travel → |
| notableFor |
combining satire with speculative cosmology
→
early use of extraterrestrial beings in literature → |
| originalLanguage |
French
→
|
| philosophicalContext |
Enlightenment critique of authority
→
early modern skepticism → |
| philosophicalIssue |
cosmology
→
epistemology → theology → |
| setting |
Earth
→
Saturn → Sirius → |
| targets |
human pretensions to knowledge
→
philosophical systems of the time → religious dogmatism → |
| theme |
Enlightenment rationalism
→
anti-dogmatism → critique of human nature → critique of metaphysics → critique of religion → limits of human knowledge → relativity of size and perspective → tolerance → |
| usesCharactersAs |
allegorical figures
→
|
| workOf |
François-Marie Arouet (Voltaire)
→
|
Referenced by (2)
| Subject (surface form when different) | Predicate |
|---|---|
|
Micromégas
("Micromégas (giant extraterrestrial philosopher)")
→
|
mainCharacter |
|
Voltaire
→
|
notableWork |