Enlightment In Voltaire's Candide Or Optimism

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What is enlightenment? Enlightenment is the concept defined by Kant as escaping lack of determination and courage and put to use self-intelligence without the guidance of others. A pre-enlightenment person was dependent on the ideas and advises of other people on how to live his life. People, most importantly men because women were irrational and not capable of being enlightened, feared to use self-intellect due to criticism by other men, society, or the government. Freedom to publicly voice one’s opinion and take it into consideration with due respect, will slowly but surely drive society towards an enlightened era. An era progressed from social inequality and legal inequality. Voltaire’s “Candide or Optimism” is a reflection of the enlightenment because throughout his novel criticizes an …show more content…

Dr. Pangloss who spoke his free mind and Candide who heard and accepted his opinions were to be hanged for displaying this liberty, while two Portuguese men who ate the chicken and threw out the bacon along with a Biscayan who married his godmother were to be burned to ashes for their respective “crimes”. (Voltaire 17-18). These people were arbitrarily and irrationally chosen to bear the cruelty of the unenlightened officials. Evaluating this scenario Voltaire is suggesting how people were treated to unequal capital punishment based on illegitimate reasons and crimes that were not deserving of such brutal punishment. Through this we understand that Voltaire was against legal inequality and that he advocated for an equal judicial system where only the ones guilty of crime would be punished, however only to degree where the punishment was morally correct and idea that supported values of

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