Voltaire Impact On Candide

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In the interactive oral, we learned about Optimism in the 18th century and its relation to Candide. Optimism is the belief that good must ultimately prevail over evil in the universe. Several philosophers, mostly Leibniz, who was a German philosopher known for calculus, believed in the perfectibility in human nature. Voltaire used Dr. Pangloss to represent the ideologies of Leibniz. I believe Voltaire had a very pessimistic view of life and was not a strong supporter of the idea that mankind was created perfectly and cannot be made better. However, Voltaire does provide a sense of change in the end of the book when Candide and his friends begin to work in the garden towards the end and Candide, "but we must cultivate our garden" (120).…show more content…
Furthermore, the Age of Enlightenment brought about a sort of cleansing of the 18th century, so Voltaire's work could've been seen as a sort of spark for the betterment of the society. Even more, Candide was a perfect representation of the naïveté of optimism and the false hope it brings about for not changing the corruption of society. Voltaire was negative in the sense that he had seen so much corruption during his time that he felt that there should be change. The historical events that took place in the book: Lisbon's earthquake, the Seven Years War, the fight for power among the monarchy, can make one very pessimistic. Clearly, Voltaire's pessimism is very much obliged in such time. However, I feel like Voltaire did not completely understand the other philosophers viewpoint on optimism. For example, Immanuel Kant believed that there is a possibility of better world and better people, however; you cannot achieve that without change. Many philosophers did not see the world as completely perfect but they did not overwhelmingly believe it was completely evil. Yet, Voltaire mocks everything as completely

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