Sample Essay - Voltaire

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During the Enlightenment, a movement that reached its height in France in the mid 1700s, intellectuals began to focus on the principles of nature, reason, and progress in every day life, just as reason had been applied to science during the Scientific Revolution. Francois Marie Arouet, an Enlightenment thinker, published over 70 books under the pen name Voltaire, in which he criticized the flaws of the clergy, the aristocracy, the government, and organized religion, often through satire. Voltaire's famous saying is, “Ecrasez l'infame,” or, “crush the evil thing,” by which he meant, religion, ignorance, superstition, and injustice need to be destroyed. In one of his most famous works, <I>Candide</I>, Voltaire tells the story of a man named Candide who travels around the world with different companions and becomes acquainted with the many evils of the world. In <I>Candide</I>, Voltaire<I> </I>expresses the main principles of the Enlightenment: the concept of reason, a need to end superstition, and a belief in the necessity of pragmatic progress. Voltaire displays his belief in the power of reason through his criticism of fanaticism as expressed in illogical thinking and his satire toward the superstition related to organized religion. Also, unlike many enlightenment philosophers, his view on progress was a pragmatic one including limitations, as is expressed through his satire towards optimism and his description of the world's evils. </div> <div>      Voltaire believed strongly in the Enlightenment principle of reason as it is shown through his criticism of the fanaticism connected with illogical thinking. Many philosophers of the time defined reason as being the truth that can be discovered through logical thinking. In his novel, <I>Candide</I>, Voltaire creates a character, Pangloss whose fanatic optimistic views are overly Rational and are formed without any empirical bases or experience. Through the use of satire and sarcasm, Voltaire mocks the views of this character in order to illustrate the value and necessity of reason and logic. At one point in the novel, as Candide, Pangloss, and James the Anabaptist are traveling by boat near Libson, James falls into the dangerous sea. Candide immediately wishes to save his friend but Pangloss prevents him by stating, “the Libson Harbor was created expressly for the Anabaptist to drown in” (28).  This idea of Pangloss's was an expansion upon his fanatic belief that all things in the world happen for the best, a caricature of the Rationalism of Rene Descartes and Liebniz. Voltaire chooses such an absurd example to display the fact that the sea did not form to kill James, and he thus proves that logical thought often contains errors when formed without regard to experience. Like fellow Enlightenment thinkers of his time, Voltaire recognized that reason, or logical thinking backed by experience, is vital in the course of life.</div> <div> In addition to crushing illogical thinking as associated with fanaticism, Voltaire believed that organized religion violated reason, and therefore should be destroyed. He criticizes the Christian Church through the voice of a slave, who says, “The Dutch fetishes [missionaries] who converted me [to Christianity] tell me every Sunday that we are all the sons of Adam, Whites and Blacks alike. I'm no genealogist, but if these preachers are right, we are all cousins born of first cousins.” This statement is both funny and critical.  Although it can be seen through simple observation that a black person and a white person cannot be cousins, the church presents such an idea to the common man. The Church officials of this time mistreated slaves and the lower class with physical abuse. The same slave that spoke of the Church's teachings states, “Well, you will grant me that you can't treat a relative much worse than this.” In the words of this slave, Voltaire illustrates his understanding that the Church is contradicting itself and applies no reason when it teaches of loving your fellow citizen who shares a common decent, and then treats slaves with inhumane cruelty. Furthermore, in <I>Candide </I>almost all the priests and monks have mistresses, which illustrates the corruption and hypocrisy within the church. As a counter example, Voltaire offers Eldorado, the perfect city, that has a religion but without monks or organized prayer sessions. This model place shows that Voltaire was not against the belief in God, but still wished to crush organized religion, which he called infamous and corrupt. Thus, in his criticism of organized religion, Voltaire shows, through reason, the need for a less fanatical and superstitious form of religion.</div> <div>      Unlike many philosophers of the Enlightenment, Voltaire believed in a limited, pragmatic kind of progress. In the eyes of Pangloss, everything in the world is for the best purpose and can not be other than it is; however, Voltaire clearly ridicules this optimistic, idealistic view. To illustrate his awareness of the evils in the world, he shows Candide traveling from place to place as he discovers that everyone's life story is worse than the next person's. Through these experiences and the stories of horror in everyone's life, Voltaire presents the notion that the world could not possibly be the best that it can be, and people need to observe these horrors and apply their reason in order for society to improve, grow and progress. Logical thinking shows that if one observes the nature of society as Candide did (the first step in progress) and applies reason and logical thinking (second step) the conclusion will be made that change must exist and one must “crush the evil” as Voltaire put it. Moreover, Voltaire expresses his limited optimism through his conclusion about progress at the close of the story. <I>Candide</I> ends with Candide's decision to “cultivate our garden” (120). In his garden, Candide literally grows what he plants, and gets out what he has put in. Voltaire didn't believe in unlimited progress; rather, he acknowledged the evils in the world and realized that one can't always philosophize about the nature of the world because doing so won't produce any profitable results. Candide realizes at the end that what he can control are his own actions and his own plot of earth. He knows that what he plants will grow and in doing so, he is taking control of what he can, which is a step in progress. He observed the evils and understood that he can't control them but he can cultivate his own garden. Thus, Voltaire illustrates his belief that while progress is of great importance to the improvement of society, reason shows that it must be limited and pragmatic. </div> <div> In <I>Candide,</I> Voltaire uses the techniques of sarcasm and satire to present his values of reason, an end to superstition, and limited progress during the Enlightenment.  Through his criticism of illogical thinking brought on by fanaticism, and the superstition related to an organized church, Voltaire illustrates that the source of truth is logical thinking applied to real world experiences. Furthermore, Voltaire contradicts Pangloss's extreme optimism by showing the evils in the world in order to illustrate the importance of progress that is limited and pragmatic, rather than hopelessly idealistic. In his story, Voltaire presents the idea that if one believes that everything in the world is for the best, then they will have no reason to change things, and therefore, society will never be able to progress. </div> <div>   </div> <div>     </div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>