Abstract
Voltaire's understanding of Spinoza's ideas was distorted by erroneous attributions and a shallow understanding of the philosopher's idea of God, Nature, and Monism. Voltaire based his bias on the famous article by Bayle and on his own theism. As such, Voltaire built a polemical caricature of Spinoza's ideas that gets repeated in his works and correspondence. In this caricature, however, it would not be difficult to recognize Quincas Borba's Humanitism. One would also recognize elements in Brás Cubas's delirium. On the other hand, there is a convergence of these same ideas in Leopardi, who will also furnish Machado with another prism on how to engage Spinoza and Voltaire. Machado, however refracts the debate by undermining, rearranging, and introducing new elements in it. Would it be upsetting to Nature to deny it its own mandate: the renewal of the species? In the "chapter of negatives," would this denial be the only positive action allowed an Individual?
Humanitism; Spinoza; Voltaire; Leopardi; theism; atheism