Voltaire's Views On Idealism in Candide
Voltaire’s Views on Idealism
“An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it makes a better soup.”
― H.L. Mencken, A Book of Burlesques One of Voltaire’s famous sayings is “Ecrasez l’ infume,” or “crush the evil thing,” by which he meant illogical reasoning, idealism, religion, superstition and other values that were put down during the Enlightenment. In his satire Candide, he tells the story of a man named Candide’s travels around the world. In his travels, Candide becomes well acquainted with the evils of the world. Through Candide’s travels and its ending, Voltaire clearly shows his opposition toward hopeless idealism. Voltaire creates the philosopher Pangloss who has overly optimistic ideals, which are not based on life experiences. Voltaire mocks his philosophy using irony. For example, early in the novel Candide and Pangloss’s travels led them to James the Anabaptist, who later falls into the dangerous sea while the three were traveling to Lisbon. Candide wants to help the drowning Anabaptist, but is stopped by Pangloss. He says, “The Lisbon Harbor was created expressly for the Anabaptist to drown in” (26). Voltaire uses this situation to highlight the errors in the logical reasoning of Pangloss philosophy. The sea was, obviously, not made for the sole purpose of drowning James the Anabaptist. Candide could have saved him but Pangloss’s lack of experience and disregard of logical reasoning proved to be fatal. This showed that both are vital to guide one’s way through life. A sharp contrast to Candide’s world was the perfect city, El Dorado. El Dorado is Voltaire’s definition of the perfect world/city. It is a place of relative equality and advanced science. The values presented by the city and its peoples can be used to compare Pangloss’s ways. In El Dorado, education and logical reasoning are used to achieve the world that is “too good to be true.” Voltaire presents this ideal town as the society
“An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it makes a better soup.”
― H.L. Mencken, A Book of Burlesques One of Voltaire’s famous sayings is “Ecrasez l’ infume,” or “crush the evil thing,” by which he meant illogical reasoning, idealism, religion, superstition and other values that were put down during the Enlightenment. In his satire Candide, he tells the story of a man named Candide’s travels around the world. In his travels, Candide becomes well acquainted with the evils of the world. Through Candide’s travels and its ending, Voltaire clearly shows his opposition toward hopeless idealism. Voltaire creates the philosopher Pangloss who has overly optimistic ideals, which are not based on life experiences. Voltaire mocks his philosophy using irony. For example, early in the novel Candide and Pangloss’s travels led them to James the Anabaptist, who later falls into the dangerous sea while the three were traveling to Lisbon. Candide wants to help the drowning Anabaptist, but is stopped by Pangloss. He says, “The Lisbon Harbor was created expressly for the Anabaptist to drown in” (26). Voltaire uses this situation to highlight the errors in the logical reasoning of Pangloss philosophy. The sea was, obviously, not made for the sole purpose of drowning James the Anabaptist. Candide could have saved him but Pangloss’s lack of experience and disregard of logical reasoning proved to be fatal. This showed that both are vital to guide one’s way through life. A sharp contrast to Candide’s world was the perfect city, El Dorado. El Dorado is Voltaire’s definition of the perfect world/city. It is a place of relative equality and advanced science. The values presented by the city and its peoples can be used to compare Pangloss’s ways. In El Dorado, education and logical reasoning are used to achieve the world that is “too good to be true.” Voltaire presents this ideal town as the society