Candide and the Enlightenment
Conor Brown
Western Civ.
9/17/11
Candide: A Reflection
Harsh criticism abounds in the enlightened satire Candide by Voltaire. The author constantly goes against the popular flow and challenges the status quo of the Enlightenment. Nothing is off limits for Voltaire and topics stretch from love, class, warfare and even religion. In the ever-changing society of the Enlightened period many just believed in the teachings of the supposed leading philosophers of the time, but Voltaire challenged these ideas and brought about new and what he believed were logical ways of thinking. Even though the Enlightenment is constantly satirized in the book it is in its self a work of the Enlightenment. Which is very ironic but true nonetheless. However, through these harsh criticisms Voltaire presents his work in an extremely humorous and approachable way. Perhaps the best example of how the Enlightenment is satirized is Voltaire’s view of optimism. One of the movements most regarded philosophers was Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. He founded this idea of supreme optimism. His theory was that since God is a benevolent deity all is good in the world no matter what happens. In other words everything happens for a reason, but that reason is always a good one. Voltaire saw it otherwise and gave multiple examples to back his defense. The first example revolves around Candide’s teacher Pangloss who is a supreme believer in the optimistic teachings of Leibniz. Pangloss had gone missing for a while but Candide soon finds him as a beggar with many sores all over his body. Pangloss explains that he had contracted syphilis from a servant in the Baron’s mansion. Now, usually any terrible disease is a bad thing but in Pangloss’ mind it is a good thing. He explains to Candide that syphilis comes from Columbus’ discovery of the New World and says that without it Europe would have never been able to benefit from the new discoveries made there. For example without syphilis
Western Civ.
9/17/11
Candide: A Reflection
Harsh criticism abounds in the enlightened satire Candide by Voltaire. The author constantly goes against the popular flow and challenges the status quo of the Enlightenment. Nothing is off limits for Voltaire and topics stretch from love, class, warfare and even religion. In the ever-changing society of the Enlightened period many just believed in the teachings of the supposed leading philosophers of the time, but Voltaire challenged these ideas and brought about new and what he believed were logical ways of thinking. Even though the Enlightenment is constantly satirized in the book it is in its self a work of the Enlightenment. Which is very ironic but true nonetheless. However, through these harsh criticisms Voltaire presents his work in an extremely humorous and approachable way. Perhaps the best example of how the Enlightenment is satirized is Voltaire’s view of optimism. One of the movements most regarded philosophers was Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. He founded this idea of supreme optimism. His theory was that since God is a benevolent deity all is good in the world no matter what happens. In other words everything happens for a reason, but that reason is always a good one. Voltaire saw it otherwise and gave multiple examples to back his defense. The first example revolves around Candide’s teacher Pangloss who is a supreme believer in the optimistic teachings of Leibniz. Pangloss had gone missing for a while but Candide soon finds him as a beggar with many sores all over his body. Pangloss explains that he had contracted syphilis from a servant in the Baron’s mansion. Now, usually any terrible disease is a bad thing but in Pangloss’ mind it is a good thing. He explains to Candide that syphilis comes from Columbus’ discovery of the New World and says that without it Europe would have never been able to benefit from the new discoveries made there. For example without syphilis