Optimism As An Ideal In Voltaire's Candide

Optimism as an Ideal

Voltaire presents the character of the protagonist Candide: “The Optimist." Received the principles of optimism from his teacher, Dr. Pngloss, who lives constantly under optimism, based on theoretical philosophical argument rather than realistic evidence or experiment. However, In the disordered world of the novel. Pangloss and his student Candide maintain that “everything is for the best in this best of all possible worlds” the idea is a simplified version of the philosophies of a number of Enlightenment thinkers, most notably Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz. The earthquake in Candide resembles the real earthquake that leveled Lisbon in 1755. While Candide lies under wreckage

So that, Eldorado isn 't meant to prove Pangloss 's theory. But Voltaire here uses Eldorado to illustrate that things can be better after worse. Therefore, the best of all possible worlds (Utopia) is an absurd idea. In Chapter twenty, Martin intensified The Old Woman 's assertion that the world is quite a terrible place. Despite all of the hard evidence Martin provides. But when Candide explores Martin 's pessimism as an alternative to Pangloss 's optimism, and he solicits him for his wisdom on various topics, including the nature of man. Voltaire was giving the reader a new alternative approach based on realistic evidences and Experiment to Lipniz’s philosophy. Chapter twenty-four, The philosophy of optimism grows gradually less reasonable to Candide considering the miserable stories of Paquette and Friar Giroflee. But his optimism and self-satisfaction end prematurely when he finds out that Cacambo has lost all of the money and that Cunégonde is ugly and she washes dishes for another dethroned prince in Turkey. Meanwhile, Martin remains skeptical of Pangloss 's philosophy and comfortable in his pessimism. At the end, Pangloss admits that he never believed in optimism because he was