The book Candide written by the philosopher Voltaire was written in 1762 during the Enlightenment (Wootton 139). It narrates the philosopher, Candide, along his journeys throughout the world and how he embraces his tragedies. I believe that Voltaire in Candide uses exaggeration of absurd misfortunes that befall Candide and his companions to show that philological optimism could not be a feasible philosophy of life. I think Voltaire attempts to illustrate that not every cause and effect has to be looked in a positive way, that just because God is perfect and he made the world does not necessary mean that every cause and effect is for the greater good. Throughout the journeys of Candide and his companions he trusts the goodwill of random people thinking the best of them, even though the world is evil and corrupt. Disaster after disaster he continues to believe that every misfortune was in fact for the better and not the worse, no matter the circumstances.…show more content… Later in the book Pangloss is sick from a disease that was brought back from the Americans and Candide asks him if the devil was the cause of this misfortune. Pangloss goes on to express his terrible optimism philosophy by telling him that the disease was necessary, which killed thousands of people, because now the Europeans have chocolate. This philological optimism does not make logical sense for thousands of people to die, which include himself because everything was made for the best purpose. If everything was made for the best purpose he wouldn’t have even contracted the disease nor would it have gone to Europe or even existed. Voltaire here is trying to make fun of the philological philosophers who believe disasters could be seen in any kind of positive way. Contracting a disease and a whole continent getting it can no way be seen as a positive thing for the