Matt Conway Prof. Isabel Sperry ENGL 1B 17 Jun. 2011 Candide ...

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[Draft] Conway 2 truths, but especially (when it is compared with faith) of those whereto the human mind can attain naturally without being aided by the light of faith (73). He further mentions that there are two types of truths, one being undeniable (e.g., water forms to the shape of its container), and truths that cannot be contradicted without “being led into absurdities” (74). But the issue with this argument, of course, is that the word absurd is not an objective one; an idea that is absurd to one group may well be perfectly acceptable to another. For instance, many believe that there is no higher power, but Leibniz accepts this as undeniable fact. In trying to use this reason and reconcile the truths of faith with the truths of science, he has sometimes to defer to a higher understanding and state simply that “if we were capable of understanding the universal harmony, we should see . . .” (99). Voltaire criticized him sharply for this in his short work “Well, Everything is Well,” saying “Leibniz sensed there was nothing to be said in reply [to the question of why God permits evil]; and so he made big fat books in which he confused himself” (85). Voltaire is attacking the basis of Leibniz' work here—by pointing out that Leibniz agreed that one of his primary questions is unanswerable by mortals, Voltaire is tacitly claiming his whole work is ridiculous and invalid. Pangloss appears to be an ardent believer in this philosophy of Optimism, and he uses it to explain everything. He uses it to justify much of the evil in the world, going from Leibniz’ general principles to, for instance, the notion that “the bay of Lisbon had been formed expressly for this Anabaptist to drown in” (“Candide” 9). Perhaps Pangloss is meant to directly symbolize the Leibnizian philosophy: in his youth and young adulthood, he is strong and self-confident, taking the world by storm, much as Leibnizianism did in France before the 1720s (Wade 24). As his life progresses, he ends up less famous than he had hoped, as the court philosopher of a mid-rate castle in Westphalia, rather than at an upper-crust German research university, as was his wish (“Candide” 72), similar to how Optimism, once having such bright future, began to decline in © 2011 Matt Conway. CC BY-NC 3.0.
[Draft] Conway 3 after 1740 (Wade 26). Pangloss' contraction of syphilis could easily symbolize how Optimism was finally relinquished to the history books around the time of Candide's publication (24). The fact that Pangloss did not die at the end of Candide, as Optimism died after about 1760, can be simply attributed to the fact that Candide was published in 1759, before the end of the reign of Optimism (many claim Candide's well-written satire actually was the death knoll for Leibniz' Optimism, Wade 26). There are several arguments, though, that perhaps Pangloss is not, in fact, an ardent supporter of Optimism. Candide itself points this out near the end, when Pangloss admits that he no longer believes in Optimism but repeats it simply to keep from losing face (73). Arthur Scherr notes also that Pangloss was hired by the baron’s family as their philosopher; he wasn’t free to preach his own opinions necessarily. He may have been been “merely expounding the prevailing wisdom of the vicinage” (Scherr 92), not actually stating his beliefs. Candide and Cacambo's voyage to Eldorado is a central part of the story, and one that Voltaire uses to dispute optimism, in more ways than one. At first glance, it seems that the land of Eldorado flies in the face of optimism by being a better world than the one of Candide and Cacambo, contradicting the notion that “we live in the best of possible worlds.” When they leave Eldorado and see the contrast between the peaceful, pastoral land of Eldorado and the horrors of the real world, especially the abused slave they meet on the road, Candide exclaims “Oh Pangloss! . . . you had no notion of these abominations! I'm through, I must give up your optimism after all!” (“Candide” 40). The perfection of Eldorado provides a stark contrast to the horrible events of the rest of the book. But William Bottglia points out, by way of Ludwig Khan, that “a standard of perfection cannot by definition be improved beyond itself without ceasing to be a standard of perfection ” (340). This exposes an inconvenient truth about Optimism: if everything in the world is eternally © 2011 Matt Conway. CC BY-NC 3.0.
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Matt Conway Prof. Isabel Sperry ENGL 1B 17 Jun. 2011 Candide ...

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