Voltaire

Voltaire was a philosopher in the 17th century. Voltaire’s main purpose for writing the novel Candide was to get rid of the optimism theories. Voltaire wrote this during the 17th century enlightenment era when all these new ideologies and societies were changing their ways of thinking. The satire and exaggeration helped show that the theory of optimism should be demolished. Voltaire’s satire and irony was aimed at the philosophical optimism along with religion, political systems, and war. He…

authority and governmental power. Many philosophers of the time such as Rousseau, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Hobbes, and Locke had many different ideal forms of government and major beliefs, shaping today’s world. Rousseau wrote that the process made by civilization and enlightenment had corrupted the human nature. Montesquieu had a different view, as he favored the English system of separation of powers. Voltaire was a strong supporter of monarchal power, writing History of the Russian Empire under…

In the story of Candide, Voltaire portrays El dorado as either pessimistic or optimistic. At the end of the novel, Candide retrieves into his garden to work in. He contemplates about the everything he has gone through to end up the way he did. He finds his answer in the wisdom of Professor Pangloss with which he couldn’t agree more. El Dorado as described by Voltaire is an optimistic world. In El Dorado there is no tyranny to push their power onto the people, everyone is free to do as they…

Voltaire Voltaire once said “God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well” (“Voltaire Quotes”). Taking his own advice and using it in life, Voltaire wrote countless numbers of books, poems, pamphlets and plays that criticized and analyzed the surroundings of his time living. The philosophe took his personal life experiences and fixated them into many writings such as Candide, The Age of Louis XIV and Essay on the Customs and the Spirit of the Nations.…

According to Immanuel Kant, getting rid of one’s self-imposed immaturity, along with freedom, is the key to achieving enlightenment. Voltaire believed the enlightenment was inevitable, but stressed the importance of religious acceptance. Comparatively, the two thinkers offer similar points in regardance to their individual thoughts, but differ in whether or not the enlightenment is actually inevitable. Kant begins his response to the question, “what is enlightenment?”, by writing,…

been. In particular religion was one of the strong traditions that was uprooted in this time, as seen in the two excerpts written by Thomas Jefferson and Francois Voltaire. This new way of thinking moved religion from the top of the list, as it was in the Reformation, to the back burner and it was evident in European countries. When Voltaire touches on the subject of religion during his piece, he claims that religion is for personal satisfaction in areas…

inhabitants put to the sword, neither sex nor age was spared.” This passage condemns warfare in terms of morality, meaning war and civilizations’ paradox each other because it is wrong to kill women in children at any time with the exception of war. Voltaire denounces this specific facet of war as it…

to America rather than live under Charles rule. The European struggle influenced American history. 2. Voltaire was known as one of the greatest figures of the Enlightenment. His full name was Francois-Marie Arouet, but people would call him Voltaire. His writings during the eighteenth century brought him fame and wealth. Voltaire was known for criticism of Christianity. Voltaire believed that the…

Moliere and Voltaire have several things in common. They both are French writers and passionate to write stories about religion. For example, Moliere wrote “Tartuffe or the Imposter” and Voltaire wrote “Candide or Optimism”. Those stories are related to the religion belief. Voltaire story stated that "As far as human concerned, God gave them reason and then left them free to use it". It has happened in the Moliere story (Tartuffe) if Orgon had faith in God he would not bring the deceiver into…

Leah Elizabeth Hasdan PHL206 Midterm February 5th, 2016 The Dialogue of Leibniz and Voltaire Concerning the Topic of Evil Voltaire: “It is the concern of physical evil that I would like to call attention to; it is in the macabre events such as plagues and earthquakes that call into question the weakness of our nature. If we regard this world, such as it is, the best of all possible systems, then how are we to hope for a happy future state? Are nations not in the wrong to seek out the origin…