Voltaire's Candide as an Attack on Optimism Essays

"All events are linked together in the best of possible worlds; for after all, if you had not been driven from a fine castle by being kicked in the backside for love of Miss Cunegonde, if you hadn?t been sent before the Inquisition, if you hadn?t traveled across America on foot, if you hadn?t given a good sword thrust to the baron, if you hadn?t lost all your sheep from the good land of Eldorado, you wouldn?t be sitting here eating candied citron and pistachios"(p.585).

Voltaire’s Candide portrays an exaggerated image of human cruelty and suffering in the world. Specifically, Voltaire criticizes people’s lack of willingness to prevent suffering, and their tendency to accept the idea that there is nothing anyone can do about human outcomes. He upholds his belief that practical ways of solving problems generate improvement. He believes that human indifference and inaction cause suffering to carry on. Voltaire’s believes that naïve optimism, absolute pessimism, cruel indifference, and lack of reason hinder positive and constructive change.

Voltaire believed in God and that an afterlife was the most powerful force of moral constraint within society, but as a philosophe he believed in the modern view of deism.5 Through the socialization of deism, social religion was

Voltaire was the author of the novella Candide, also known as "Optimism". The the novella, Voltaire portrays the idea of Optimism as being illogical and absurd. In Candide, Voltaire satirizes the doctrine of Optimism, an idea that was greatly used during the Enlightenment time period by philosophers. In this narrative, Candide is a young man who goes through a series of undertakings and ventures around the the globe where he experiences evil and adversity. Throughout his journeys, Candide maintained the ideas of the teachings of his tutor, Pangloss. Candide and Pangloss believed in the idea that “All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds...” (Voltaire 4). This belief is what Voltaire pointed out to be an irrational way of

For example, Voltaire has Pangloss (a characterization of the "typical" optimist) "prove admirably that there is no effect without a cause, and that, in this best of all possible worlds, the Baron's castle was the most magnificent of castles, and his lady the best of all possible Baronesses" (1). This reasoning, along with the infamous "nose has been formed to bear spectacle" (2) conclusion are irrelevant trains of thought. These misconstrued ideas that everything was made to work perfectly together is not a cohesive explanation outside of Pangloss's mind. Voltaire proves, in paragraphs following the description of the "magnificent castle," that in reality things do not go as planned. The Utopian castle remarks are contradicted when Candide's simple and easy life is complicated by his ousting from the "most magnificent of castles." The great Baron banished his daughter's love because he was not of as noble heritage as she. This event does not coincide with the ideas that everything fits together works well together. To

Albert Schweltzer, a theologian, organist, philosopher, and physician, once said,”An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while a pessimist only sees a red stoplight… A truly wise person is colorblind.” Many people know about the dangers of constantly being pessimistic and looking down on people. But what many people do not realize is the dangers of excessive or even blind optimism. Some people swear by it and others think it’s crazy. Voltaire was a famous philosopher who could be said to be ahead of his time, for his beliefs on separation of church and state, freedom of religion, and freedom of expression, and he believed it was insane. He later wrote the novel Candide, which was made as a satire of all the things he believed

. . . Consequently, those who say everything is well are uttering mere stupidities; they should say everything is for the best. ” (Voltaire 4). All these illogical words and conclusions basically teach Candide to be optimistic, to not worry and be happy; since the world in which they live is the best of all possible worlds, everything happens out of absolute necessity and everything happens for the best. In another context, this also means that there is a reason to explain everything. Again, Voltaire uses Pangloss to represent and parody the theory from The Great Chain of Being, the belief that the world is perfect, as it is the best of all possible worlds, and that all evil in it is simply a mean to a greater good.

Candide is a reflection of the philosophical values of the Enlightenment. Voltaire’s novel is a satire of the Old Regime ideologies in which he critiques the political, social, and religious ideals of his time.

Providing a simple explanation for Pangloss' optimistic philosophy that we live in the "best of all possible worlds" this quote appears in the first chapter of the story and sets up one of the main themes throughout the novel. It's basically the logic behind Pangloss' philosophy, though it makes no sense. It seems quite obvious that spectacles were designed to fit the nose and not the other way around. These are the first of many very illogical arguments to support his philosophy. As the novel progresses this philosophy goes under brutal attacks by the misfortunes the characters come across again and again throughout their lives. It also sets up the never-ending debate between those characters with the optimistic view and those with the pessimistic view. Voltaire uses Pangloss' philosophy to demonstrate a point. Because he so strongly opposes this philosophy it's a recurring theme in the novel.

In Voltaire’s famous eighteenth century text, Candide, the topic of optimism is prevalent. In fact, an alternative name for the piece is “L’Optimisme,” or “The Optimist.” Specifically, Voltaire examines and satirizes Leibnizian optimism, or the notion that humans inhabit the “best of all possible worlds,” as Gottfried Leibniz phrased it in his early Enlightenment era work, Théodicée. Throughout Candide, the readers are introduced to some characters who hold very optimistic outlooks out about life and their current situations, namely Candide himself and Pangloss, Candide’s mentor. In the end, Voltaire ridicules those who subscribe to the conception that this universe is the best possibility and claims that a balance between optimistic and pessimistic views provides a more accurate perspective.

In Voltaire’s Candide, we are taken by the hand through an adventure which spanned two continents, several countries, and to a multitude of adverse characters. The protagonist, Candide, became the recipient of the horrors which would be faced by any person in the 18th century. But Candide was always accompanied with fellows sufferers, two of which our focus will lay, Pangloss and Martin. In equal respects, both are embodiments of different philosophies of the time: Pangloss the proponent of Optimism and Martin the proponent of Pessimism. Each of the two travelers is never together with Candide, until the end, but both entice him to picture the world in one of their two philosophies. Throughout the story there is an apparent ebb and flow

     The philosophy of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz, which Voltaire called “optimism,” is one of the main themes of Candide. The two main points of Leibnitzian philosophy are that God is beneficent, and that in creating the world, He created the best possible one. Leibnitz did not argue that the world was perfect or that evil was non-existent, but thanks

The content of the 1700s was fulfilled with contradictions, war and greed, which had all revolved around the concept of religious disagreements. The writing of Voltaire, in “Candide, or Optimism” had displayed the personal desire of Voltaire to develop an aura of equality and peace, made evident through his emphasis upon the spiteful actions of the characters within the writing. Voltaire had explained the ruthless world experienced, as he portrayed a young man’s torture, with hopes to draw realization to how out of hand the world he witnessed was. Candide was the character Voltaire had targeted as the example set for the current society. Candide was isolated upon his beliefs, including his affection for Miss Cunegonde, and his lack of favor

Through the experiences of the protagonist Candide, Voltaire depicts his philosophical beliefs in the book titled Candide. Voltaire rejects both the optimistic philosophy that suggests “all is for the best…[because] we live in the best of all possible worlds” and the pessimistic philosophy that suggests that there is “little virtue and little happiness in the world…[because] men were created by the forces of evil and not by the forces of good.” Instead of believing in these two radical philosophies, Voltaire believes that the world can find morality through reason, and he expresses his views through his descriptions of both Pangloss’s and Martin’s philosophies as well as the ideal land of Eldorado.

This paper will object to Sidgwick’s axiom that from the point of view of the universe, the good of one is no more important than the good of another on the ground that it is analytic. I present the purpose and content of the axiom with a further explanation of what I take ‘the point of view of the universe’ to mean. I then consider the response of the Egoist to the axiom and Sidgwick’s counter-response to illustrate the tautology of the argument. The tautology of the argument brings it in line with other axioms that Sidgwick rejects as insignificant. Thus, I argue that the third axiom fails to meet Sidgwick’s own standards, making its utility and significance questionable. In response to this, I consider that the axiom may be analytic but