Voltaire's Use Of False Optimism In Candide

Most people hope the world is the way they believe it is. That is, most people hope that their view of the world is right. They usually do not hope for the truth about things to be much better than what they suppose it is. Sometimes the hope is a factor in causing the belief; sometimes the hope stems from the desire to be right about one's belief; and in some cases the hope may follow the belief, i.e., one becomes accustomed even to an austere view of the world and finally comes to prefer it. It seems that most people, especially most philosophers, would rather be right than have the world turn out to be even a better place than their theory allows. They might not admit this

In Voltaires?s Candide, the main character, Candide, fails to live happily because he is looking outside of himself and his circumstances to do it. Voltaire says through Candide's ultimate discovery that happiness in many ways depends on a person's attitude. Voltaire's philosophy expressed through Candide's final realization is that "We must cultivate our garden," which is the key to happiness(p.585). By cultivating our garden, Voltaire means that we must make the best of our situation in the present moment. We accept what we are given in life and work to make the best of it. It all has to do with our perspective on life. We do not find happiness somewhere else or by philosophizing about it, we open our eyes to the

Many people concern themselves with the goal of living the most satisfying life possible. While some seek a peaceful existence, others hope for prosperity and high social standing. Throughout Voltaire’s “Candide,” the main character’s search for a content lifestyle is what drives most of his adventures. During Candide’s travels, he attempted to honor the teachings of his tutor, Dr. Pangloss, who believed “things cannot be otherwise than they are, for since everything is made to serve an end, everything necessarily serves the best end” (Voltaire, 101). Although these lectures seemed logical, Candide learned that the only way to live a satisfactory life in “the best of all possible worlds” was to enjoy isolation, work hard, and have a purpose in society. He concluded this at the end of the story when he explained to Martin, his travel companion, and Pangloss that “we must cultivate our garden”

Just as on the title, Candide, or Optimism, Optimism is also used as a major theme. Voltaire's satire of philosophical optimism is one of the major issues of Candide. Throughout the story, satirical references to "the best of all possible worlds" contrast with natural catastrophes and human wrongdoing. According to Wikipedia, "optimism, the opposite of pessimism, is a lifeview where the world is looked upon the as a positive place. Optimists generally believe that people are inherently good. These people are said to have a "positive" outlook on life, believing that given time, things will work out in the end." Also according to Wikipedia, "In philosophy, optimism is linked with the name of Gottfried

Through the steady adversity faced by Candide, Voltaire brings up important questions about how the nature of optimism appears to commoners. Pangloss's philosophy of "the best of all possible worlds" - an example of the misleading

Voltaire’s use of imagery and satire in “Candide, or Optimism” allows the reader to contemplate how Candide has such an optimistic attitude in the face of the trials and tribulations which he and his friends endured.

There are two sides to every story. Indeed, while optimism may be initially perceived as a practical philosophy, Voltaire’s Candide proves this to be false. Originally published in 1759, Candide was written by François-Marie Arouet (otherwise known by his pen name Voltaire) and employs satire in order to show the folly in Gottfried Leibniz’s prominent philosophy, Optimism. This philosophy reasons that, because god created everything and is perfect, than it follows that anything that may take place on earth (be it natural disasters or other forms of human suffering) is perfect as well. Many of the characters in Candide are representative of certain philosophical values, and Voltaire uses these characters in order to prove his own opinions to the reader. While many people may simply view Martin as a more practical foil to Pangloss, further examination of the text could contradict this. Through Martin’s advice and actions to Candide and others in comparison to those of Pangloss, Voltaire shows their philosophies to be ineffective for its indifference to human suffering. Furthermore, through this Voltaire also illustrates that looking at all aspects of a situation, and not just those that support one’s own opinion, allows for one’s ability to accurately perceive the world.

Rousseau argued that optimism is not a philosophy that ignores the shadows of life as delineated in Candide, but a philosophy that encourages people to retain positive attitude. Literatures written by Voltaire exaggerate the negatives of the world in order to highlight the absurdity of optimism. However, some extremities in the novel are irrational that readers doubt the validity of Voltaire’s

In Candide, Voltaire shows several ways by which human beings view the world, optimism coming out as the most obvious. It was Candide’s optimism that kept him from a state of misery. His optimism was hard to destroy. For instance, when he was with martin, testing the old woman’s assumption that all people are unhappy, martin keeps

Have you ever wondered about the different perspectives that people can have on any subject or topic? Sometime in one’s life has a person had some form of discrepancy with one another over a topic that may have been highly significant or even pointless, but this is still an example of the different views that people may have towards a topic. Have you ever heard of the question “Is the glass half-full or half-empty?” This is yet another instance where there may be different ways of looking at the situation, but this is a question that is somewhat related to the attitude that one has towards life. In Candide, Voltaire displays many situations which are obviously negative; however, the character named Pangloss is a metaphysician who seems to believe

     Another example of how Voltaire ridicules Pangloss' optimistic philosophy is the mention of the Lisbon earthquake and fire. Even though the disastrous earthquake took over 30,000 lives, Pangloss still upheld his philosophical optimism by stating, "For all that is for the best...It is impossible that things should not be other than they are; for everything is right. (26)" The disaster in Lisbon affected Voltaire's life so much that he wrote the Poem

Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire was the French author of the novella Candide, also known as "Optimism"(Durant and Durant 724). Voltaire's Candide is a philosophical tale of one man's search for true happiness and his ultimate acceptance of life's disappointments. Candide grows up in the castle of his uncle, a German baron, along with his optimistic scholar, Pangloss, and his young, beautiful cousin, Cunégonde. When Candide falls in love with Cunégonde and his uncle sees them kissing, Candide is thrown out of his home and enrolls in the Bulgar army. After being beaten for wandering from camp, Candide flees to Holland and runs into an ugly beggar, who he is told to be Pangloss. He tells Candide that Cunégonde and her family have been

When I was in year four, my class did a unit on Optimism. Our Spanish teacher would come to our class and talk about all the reasons why we should be optimistic, and how it would help us later on in life. In the novella Candide, by Voltaire, the title character is also taught to be optimistic by his teacher Dr. Pangloss, who maintains that all things happen for the best of purposes and reasons. In Candide Voltaire asks us if it is wise to so strongly live by that position of extreme optimism, (or even any position at all).

The classical Greeks for example, at their most optimistic, or Europeans during the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment, have seen humans very optimistically: as the center and "measure" of all creation; as supreme strivers, beyond good and evil; characterized by reason, as inherently good and perfectible. Shakespeare's Hamlet puts it best: "What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in

Although many people come up with countless reasons why the world is not perfect, others find reasons for optimism. What makes an optimist believe that all things work toward the greater good? It may be easy to say that all is happening for the greater good until things go wrong. Does something good come from a child dying or when people in less-developed countries suffer from starvation? Why would God leave this world with so many problems? Did he do this, or was it humans? In Voltaire’s Candide, Candide comes across a utopia, a perfect world, called Eldorado. Showing the extreme contrast between Eldorado and Candide’s home in Europe suggests that only in an unreal world can man truly be content and optimistic.