Philosophical Optimism In Voltaire's Candide

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In Voltaire’s Candide, he discredits the thinkings of the other Enlightenment thinkers, mocking their ideas through his portrayal of characters. Throughout the novel, he comments on the ideologies of different philosophies by depicting the travels, and subsequent changes in ways of thinking of Candide, the novel’s main character. Although Candide initially subscribes to Pangloss’s philosophy of Philosophical Optimism, throughout the novel, Candide is exposed to the ways of thinking of Cacambo, who believes that no one philosophy is able to encapsule the world, and Martin, who asserts, contrary to Pangloss, that nothing in the world is right or reasonable. The exposure to these different philosophies causes a metaphysical journey that parallels …show more content…

Pangloss’s sole purpose in the novel is to represent the idea of Optimism, and, through his obstinate adherence to the philosophy, the folly of those who believe in it. By the end of the novel, there is no doubt in the reader’s mind as to Voltaire’s opinion on the philosophy. He shows the reader the ridiculousness of Panglossian philosophy, describing how Pangloss, despite seeing “Whirlings of fire and ashes” and “Thirty thousand inhabitants… crushed under the ruins”(20) during the Great Earthquake of Lisbon, refuses to consider that his ideals are misguided, instead asserting again that “all is for the best” and that “everything is right”. (20) Even when Pangloss contracts syphilis, and is “all covered with scabs, his eyes diseased, the end of his nose eaten away, his mouth distorted, his teeth black” (14), he sticks to his optimism, saying that his malady “was a thing unavoidable, a necessary ingredient in the best of worlds” (16). However deluded Voltaire makes Philosophical Optimism seem, it, for the first part of Candide’s journey, is the philosophy that Candide believes in wholeheartedly. In fact, through Candide’s blind acceptance of Pangloss’s optimism, Voltaire shows how young and naive Candide is. Candide describes Pangloss as “the best philosopher in Germany” …show more content…

While Pangloss was a passive observer of the world, Cacambo was a man of his own destiny, an active agent in his life. While Pangloss asserted that “It is impossible for things to be other than they are” (20), accepting the world as it was, Cacambo took charge of both his own life and that of Candide. When confronted with danger, he, instead of assuring Candide that all would be for the best and allowing fate to take its turn, “quickly saddled the… horses” and advised that they “start, and run without looking behind [them]” (45). While Pangloss reasoned that tragic events were “indispensable, for private misfortunes make the general good, so that the more private misfortunes there are the greater the good” (22), Cacambo pushes for individual fortune for both himself and Candide, telling Candide “you’ll make a prodigious fortune; if we cannot find our account in one world we shall in another” (45). Cacambo is a practical man: he does not have any delusions about the world. He is not caught up in matters of sufficient reason or cause and effect, unlike Pangloss. He showed Candide that there was more to the world than Candide had originally thought, that “it is a great pleasure to see and do new things” (45). He also shows Candide some of the evils of the world, causing him to cry out “Oh, Pangloss!... I must at last renounce thy optimism”

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