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Voltaire's critique of Leibniz
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Candide: Voltaire against Leibniz’ Optimism?
François-Marie Arouet, better known under his pen name Voltaire, was one of the leading philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment. He is considered the epitome of the eighteenth century, which has been named le siècle de Voltaire. His philosophical novel or conte, Candide, was published in 1759 and remains one of his most well known and widely read of his works—particularly for the English reader.
In one part of his Columbia dissertation “Voltaire and Leibniz,” Richard A. Brooks has read Candide as an autobiographical account of Voltaire’s lifelong indecision and struggle to come to a solution to the problem of evil: “Candide was not merely an intellectual or philosophical exercise; it is a work, in a sense, autobiographical” (99). The problem of evil was one of the primary concerns of Enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire. Scholars generally agree that Voltaire, throughout most of his works, was in conversation with pre-enlightenment German philosopher, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Some of them read Voltaire’s works as a denouncement of Leibniz as a charlatan. Others, when looking specifically at Candide, suggest that Voltaire is not refuting Leibniz’ philosophy, per se, but its popular misrepresentations. Others say that, whether Voltaire was aiming at criticizing Leibniz or the popularization of his thought, he failed in his enterprise. However, a close reading of the text of Candide itself, especially chapters three and six, provides specific evidence for reading this text as a direct and virulent attack on Leibniz’ Optimism, whose main argument is best summarized by the phrase “the best of all possible worlds” (Leibniz 229).
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Kivy, Peter. “Voltaire, Hume and the Problem of Evil.” Philosophy and Literature. 3.2 (1979): 211-224. Print.
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm. Theodicy: Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man, and the Origin of Evil. La Salle, Ill: Open Court, 1985. Gutenberg.org. The Project Gutenberg, 2005. Web. 7 Feb. 2010.
Mason, Haydn Trevor. Candide: Optimism Demolished. Twayne's masterwork studies, no. 104. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1992.
Riley, Patrick. “The Tolerant Skepticism of Voltaire and Diderot: Against Leibnizian Optimism and Wise Charity.” Early Modern Skepticism and the Origins of Toleration. Ed. Alan Levine. Lanham: Lexington Books, 1999. 249-270. Print.
Wilson, Catherine. “The reception of Leibniz in the eighteen century.” The Cambridge Companion to Leibniz. Ed. Nicholas Jolley. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. 442-474. Print.
Works Cited Moliere, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin. The "Tartuffe". Norton Anthology of World Literature: 1650 to the present. 3rd ed. of the 3rd ed.
Frautschi, R.L. Barron's Simplified Approach to Voltaire: Candide. New York: Barron's Educational Series, Inc., 1968.
Throughout Voltaire’s Candide, the implications of religious symbols and figures are used to satirize the philosophy of paternal optimism by highlighting hypocrisy in the Church. The role of the Church in historical context offers significant insight into the analysis of the text. Candide was written in 1759, a period where people started questioning the authority of the Church to explore reason as a means for acquiring knowledge. With this in mind, Candide’s religious implications are relevant with consideration to the time period. By stressing the theme of institutional hypocrisy and separation between the Church and religious values, Voltaire invalidates the Church’s role as a supreme authority and thus addresses man’s need for an altered
In chapter 5 of Candide, the Enlightenment and the birth of tolerance were on full display. In Candide, the Enlightenment thinkers’ view of the optimum world is challenged through the shipwreck and the satiric explanations of the Lisbon Bay and Lisbon Earthquake. Voltaire continues to use ironically tragic events to test Pangloss’s optimistic philosophy, which attempts to explain evil. The use of grotesque and naive behavior between individuals in this chapter makes the reader question Pangloss’s irrational thinking with the cause and effects of the events.
Voltaire, and David Wootton. "Candide." Candide and Related Texts. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 2000. 35-42. Print
Voltaire. Candide. New York: Boni and Liveright, 1918. Project Gutenberg. Web. 11 January 2014. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19942/19942-h/19942-h.htm
In Candide, Voltaire sought to point out the fallacy of Gottfried Leibniz's theory of optimism and the hardships brought on by the resulting inaction toward the evils of the world. Voltaire's use of satire, and its techniques of exaggeration and contrast highlight the evil and brutality of war and the world in general when men are meekly accepting of their fate.
Voltaire uses the episode of “The storm, the shipwreck, the earthquake, and what became of Dr. Pangloss, of Candide, and of Jacques the Anabaptist” to speak about the idea of nature being good being false. Through the use of various characters and episodes, Voltaire criticizes and attacks religion, social class structure, and the idea that nature is good by creating situations in which he shows his opinion on the overall flaws of society.
Candide is an outlandishly humorous, far-fetched tale by Voltaire satirizing the optimism espoused by the philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment. It is the story of a young man’s adventures throughout the world, where he witnesses much evil and disaster. Throughout his travels, he adheres to the teachings of his tutor, Pangloss, believing that "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds." Candide is Voltaire’s answer to what he saw as an absurd belief proposed by the Optimists - an easy way to rationalize evil and suffering. Though he was by no means a pessimist, Voltaire refused to believe that what happens is always for the best.The Age of Enlightenment is a term applied to a wide variety of ideas and advances in the fields of philosophy, science, and medicine. The primary feature of Enlightenment philosophy is the belief that people can actively work to create a better world. A spirit of social reform characterized the political ideology of Enlightenment philosophers. While Voltaire’s Candide is heavily characterized by the primary concerns of the Enlightenment, it also criticizes certain aspects of the movement. It attacks the idea that optimism, which holds that rational thought can inhibit the evils perpetrated by human beings.
Frautschi, R.L. Barron's Simplified Approach to Voltaire: Candide. New York: Barron's Educational Series, Inc., 1998.
Dalnekoff, Donna Isaacs. "Eldorado as an, ‘Impossible Dream’." Readings on Candide. Ed. Thomas Walsh. San Diego, Calif.: Greenhaven Press, 2001. P64-71. Rpt. in Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800 vol. 110. Detroit: Gale, 2005. Literature Resource Center.
The Enlightenment is held to be the source of many modern ideas, such as the primary values of freedom and reason. The views of philosophers such as Voltaire are considered to be the source of many essential changes in countries such as America and France. His views on religion, government, and freedom are what people remember most because they have not died out in today’s society.
Voltaire, Francois-Marie A. “Candide.” The Norton Anthology of World Literature: 1650-1800. Eds. Sarah Lawall and Maynard Mack. 2nd ed. Vol. D. New York: W. W. Norton, 2002. 520-567. Print.
Tooley, M. (2002). The Problem of Evil. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved (2009, October 16) from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/evil/
Candide or Optimism, written by Voltaire in 1759, was created to satirize the a priori thinking that everything is for the best in the world. Candide, the guileless and simpleminded main character and his companions are exposed to the very worst the world possibly has to offer with rape, murder, whippings, war, earthquakes, shipwrecks, cannibalism, thievery, disease, greed, and worst of all, human nature. Through these horrific events, Pangloss, the philosopher maintaining a priori thinking, stubbornly upholds the idea that everything is for the best. It is Pangloss’s influence above all else that is imprinted upon Candide and that as the novel progresses, is slowly replaced in Candide’s mind by others characters’ viewpoints. Rather than assertive