Candide
by Voltaire
Table of Contents
Pangloss
A deliberately static character, Pangloss clings to his belief in optimism on the
grounds that, as a philosopher, it would be logically inconsistent to change his belief.
Pangloss is intended to parody certain Enlightenment philosophers who were
contemporaries with Voltaire, such as Wilhelm Gottfried Leibniz. The philosophy of
Leibniz essentially begins with the assumption that there is a good, all-powerful God;
therefore, everything that exists is a part of God’s design. Since suffering and evil exist,
they are necessarily part of God’s perfect design. Therefore, everything that happens,
no matter how horrible, is for the best. The most dangerous aspect of this thinking, of
course, is that it divests individuals of personal responsibility, such as when Pangloss
actually prevents Candide from saving the good Anabaptist based on the assertion that
“the road to Lisbon had been made on purpose for this Anabaptist to be drowned in.”
Pangloss’s deeply flawed logic, and his insistence on twisting reality to match his theory
rather than adapting his theory to reflect reality, are satirical exaggerations that
demonstrate the folly of philosophical optimism.
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