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This period is referred to as The Age of Enlightenment. The Enlightenment carried the idea that economic change and political reform were possible. People started to think that they could use their own intellect to challenge the intellectual authority of tradition and the Christian past. The people who wrote for change and reform were called the philosophes French for philosophers. They wrote hoping to bring reform to religion, political thought, society, government. During the Enlightenment, revolutionary thinkers called philosophes brought about new ideas as to how to better understand and improve their society. They were all modern thinkers and had the best interests of society in mind.

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Candide by Voltaire Illustrated by Mahlon Blaine edition. Minor wear and discoloring to cover. Skip to main content. Email to friends Share on Facebook - opens in a new window or tab Share on Twitter - opens in a new window or tab Share on Pinterest - opens in a new window or tab. Add to Watchlist. People who viewed this item also viewed. The Candide An Era Of Enlightenment Philosopher

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Voltaire (The Philosophes: Thinkers of the Enlightenment)

The Enlightenment was a time of skepticism and reevaluation in Europe.

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Many preconceived notions that had dictated thought and behavior for generations were coming under fire from intellectuals and the results often resulted in chaos. Voltaire was one of the critical minds during the Enlightenment and his literary contributions are still renowned for how acutely they represent the changing themes of European thought in the 18th century.

His novella Candideperhaps his best-recognized work, is densely saturated with satirical jabs at several of these changing themes. A few of the most notable are the philosophy of optimism, the supremacy of religion, military enthusiasm, and the literary trends of romantic and adventure fiction. Through his criticism of these widely held, status quo concepts, Voltaire establishes himself as a vanguard member of the Enlightenment.

One of the prevailing philosophical movements of the Enlightenment, and one that Voltaire seemed to despise more than almost any other was Idealism. This philosophy, championed by Leibniz, was exactly as its name implied, utterly idealistic.

It operated on the premise that all things were for the best because the world we live in is the best possible world. Voltaire satirizes this philosophy unrelentingly throughout Candide. He also makes no effort to hide this particular satire behind subtlety. While it does seem charming at a glance, especially early on when it is easy to sympathize with a few bad turns for a well-meaning character, it quickly becomes apparent that a more complex world view would make Candide considerably less of an idiot.

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Voltaire presents no Candidw of awful events that should, by all rights, create some degree of cynicism in Candide. The Lisbon Earthquake of was an event that struck Voltaire as particularly calamitous The Candide An Era Of Enlightenment Philosopher a notable event that made Leibnizian optimism an even more offensive to him. He portrays it almost exactly from reality in the novel to immortalize the horror and significance of such wanton and meaningless destruction. Even as the characters of the story witness the deaths of 30, and the sailors gleefully search the rubble for loot, no thought given to the lives lost beyond their own gain, Pangloss stands by an injured Candide and lauds the earthquake for being the best possible event simply because it happened While at this time, as during many other, it appears that Candide is coming to see the world as it is, that he is horrified by the pain in it, he quickly recovers his Enlighhtenment thanks to the merest acts of kindness from the old woman character After all, Candide is just trying to stay positive, appreciate what little beauties there are.

But it is seen that he persists in blind optimism as the story goes on, unmoved to caution or skepticism in the least. Religion had long dominated Europe, particularly the Roman Catholic Church. In the travels of Candide, Voltaire finds ways, both overt and subtle, to satire the prevailing dominance of religious thought and power. Voltaire does not entertain this alliance with the church for long, however.

The Main Ideas of Enlightenment Philosophers Essay

Rather than actually engaging the debate, the Inquisition Familiar simply ignores Pangloss This is no doubt how Voltaire felt the church actually responded to logical discourse, even in a situation where they likely would have triumphed were they able and willingly to engage a reasonable debate. Enthusiasm and reverence for the military were also a long dominant theme in Europe. It was perfectly understandable that Canvide intellectuals of the time would be frustrated and angered by the pointless bickering and waste of life. The ridiculousness of military reasoning is demonstrated and mocked when Candide encounters the execution go here an Admiral.

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No further discussion or explanation is given to the event, possibly to demonstrate how little concern it was given by those who carried it out. Perhaps it would not have seemed like such a ridiculous thing at the Candive, but reading it in the modern age it is clearly a satire of how little the military values life, that it would kill one of its own supposedly valuable men, one of very high rank, just to make the others try harder.

Literature at the time, and before and since has often been dominated by a love of romance and adventure. Whether it was personal taste or a genuine belief that such writing was a bad thing, Voltaire chose to mock these fields by creating characters that would, on the surface, fit into a romantic adventure story, but then burdened them with so much reality that there was nothing glamorous left about them.]