Candide Is One of the Most Famous Satires Ever Written

Notes on Candide

Voltaire wrote satires criticizing oppressive institutions. Imprisoned 11 mos. in Bastille for writing satiric poems about the aristocracy.

Candide is one of the most famous satires ever written.

It mocks

·  artificial order of some fiction, especially quest stories

·  artificial order in Creation posited by philosophic optimists

Some general ideas:

·  Human complacency promotes social evils (Admiral Byng incident).

·  “Reason” as an ideal is irrelevant to actual human behavior.

·  Failure to acknowledge the intolerability of war epitomizes human corruption. Voltaire forces us to confront the horrors of war.

·  The claim of rational universal order avoids the hard problems of living.

Philosophical Background—Enlightenment

Plato: world composed of both spirit and matter. There is unity and harmony in the diversity of spirit and matter

Leibniz: Philosophy of Optimism (This is the best of all possible worlds, and everything

works for the best in it.)

Also Leibniz: theory of monads. Sort of like atoms, derived from Democritus. I don’t quite get this part, but apparently Leibniz saw monads as the building blocks for spirit and matter. Creation, as a hierarchy, ordered from ascending to descending, begins with God, followed by angels, and then descending levels of monads with corresponding materialism. God is the perfect and uncreated monad. Descending levels of monads reflect creation less perfectly as we go down the chain. Ultimate goal is perfection. Out of this comes providentialism—the notion of divine providence. This is the best of all possible worlds and everything works toward the good.

Descartes: Je pense, donc je suis. Reason says spirit and matter are separate. Differed from Plato on this point.

Pope: The proper study of man is man; whatever is, is right (Essay on Man)

Rousseau: Providentialism (God favors the system over the individual and that’s okay

because events work out to benefit the many.)

Voltaire may have been a deist (divine clockmaker theory)

Voltaire/Rousseau Polemic

Rose out of the Lisbon earthquake, 1755, 30-40,000 dead. Prompted an exchange of letters between Voltaire and Rousseau that ended their friendship.

Ideas outlined in the letters:

Rousseau ______

· Creation is good; man brings evils on himself. We’re corrupted.

· Earthquake victims shouldn’t have been crammed into the city like that.

· Our attachment to stuff brings suffering.

· Providence runs on a general law that does not except individuals. God favors the system over the individual; the whole over the part. Suffering is unavoidable.

· According to the natural order of creation, every being is disposed in the best possible manner with regard to the whole universe. Therefore, existence is better than nonexistence and everything operates for the good of all, even on an individual level.

Voltaire

·  This philosophy implies uncorrupted man; excludes redemption and paradise.

·  Candide, Paingloss: Everything is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.

·  Voltaire acknowledged evil and mystery; rejects the idea of an indifferent and/or powerless God. Says R’s belief that God couldn’t do any better limits the eternal mind.

·  We should trust in revelation; hope of heaven makes suffering bearable.

In Candide, Martin’s cynicism, the assumption that people are just naturally corrupt, is another form of avoidance.

Martin’s and Pangloss’s views justify passive acceptance of evil—the idea that since nothing can be done about injustice, nothing should be done.

Pococurante’s contention that nothing matters is equally passive.

Three evils, according to Voltaire, are boredom, vice, and poverty.