The Age of Enlightenment was a time where major breakthroughs in the Scientific Revolution had led to a more intellectual endeavor on a public scale in society where, most notably in Western Europe, many individuals are in the pursuit of new knowledge obtained by the use of deductive reasoning as well as new scientific discoveries. A group of these free thinking intellectuals in France were titled the philosphes, people who applied reason to the study of areas of learning such as science, politics, religion, and social issues. An individual who had struck out from most of the philosophes was a French playwright that went by the pen name of Voltaire. He was most famous for his satirical work in Candide where he had taken his chance to provide his social commentary and simultaneously to tackle on the political and social issues of France and all ideas that can be traced back to it such as the Leibnizian philosophy of optimism, hypocrisy in religion, and the uselessness of philosophical speculation. Candide was under the tutelage of a teacher by the name of Pangloss, whose central belief is that all is for the best. Pangloss was considered to be the greatest philosopher in the entire world by Candide and so his teachings would play a very central theme in the mind of his young student. Part of his teachings for Candide is that they truly are in the best of all possible worlds given that everything happens out of necessity and that everything happens for the best when he had told Candide, “It is proved that things cannot be other than they are, for since everything was made for a purpose, it follows that everything was made for the best purpose.” (20) This teaching is to be considered extremely ironic and almost invalid given that almost everything that Pangloss and Candide had endured during their adventures throughout the book would prove to be unfortunate or uneventful for the duo after experiencing pain, loss, and suffering countless times. This would lead to Candide’s faith in Pangloss’s unwavering sense of optimism being tested and questioned several times throughout the book and serve as the most recurring theme. This is Voltaire’s usage of the character Pangloss as one of his satirical jabs on the philosophy of Leibnizian optimism. The philosopher Leibniz maintained that the world must be the best world imaginable because the world was created by God and that God has the most benevolent and capable mind in the world. It’s even thought of that suffering can become a good thing out of all the misfortunes due to the principles of Leibnizian optimism. Suffering has also been a recurring topic all throughout the book. It was taken to an illogical extreme when all this suffering could be traced back to the faulty philosophy of optimism. For example when Candide had found his old master Pangloss on the streets and deeply saddened by his physical state as well as being shocked to learn the condition of his health from having contracted syphilis, Pangloss replies with “It is indispensable in the best of both worlds. It is a necessary ingredient. For if Columbus, when visiting the West Indies, had not caught this disease, which poisons the source
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Candide was stricken with curiosity and so had asked several questions about religious life in Eldorado and had asked to see some of their priests. The inhabitant, an old man, explained that the residents were all priests and that it was not necessary to have special people to interfere with their worship of God. Candide then asks in a sarcastic undertone, “ Do you mean to say you have no monks teaching and disputing, governing and intriguing, and having people burned if they don’t subscribe to their opinions?” (80). To which the old man stated it would simply be a stupid decision. Voltaire used this example as a way to express that there are other religions that can be better than the traditional religions being practiced. He expressed that a clergy would be unnecessary and possibly harmful. It could have been taken as a hint that a more simple religion might just be beneficial for other Europeans. This discovery gave Candide a different approach to thinking and made him speculate and ponder about his own personal
Candide was stricken with curiosity and so had asked several questions about religious life in Eldorado and had asked to see some of their priests. The inhabitant, an old man, explained that the residents were all priests and that it was not necessary to have special people to interfere with their worship of God. Candide then asks in a sarcastic undertone, “ Do you mean to say you have no monks teaching and disputing, governing and intriguing, and having people burned if they don’t subscribe to their opinions?” (80). To which the old man stated it would simply be a stupid decision. Voltaire used this example as a way to express that there are other religions that can be better than the traditional religions being practiced. He expressed that a clergy would be unnecessary and possibly harmful. It could have been taken as a hint that a more simple religion might just be beneficial for other Europeans. This discovery gave Candide a different approach to thinking and made him speculate and ponder about his own personal