Abstract
The article approaches the philosophical thinking of Enlightenment as a movement that gains its characteristics when passing from one country to another. An example of this movement is the movement of Voltaire's thinking that we can follow in his Philosophical letters.
As the fourteenth letter comparing Descartes and Newton shows, it is in this movement that Voltaire's understanding of science, knowledge and truth is formed. From the comparison of these theories Voltaire derives his thoughts about the social premises of knowledge and he starts to attribute to the truth a role in the promotion of social consensus.