Candide Voltaire's Value of Philosophy Research Paper

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Aside from Candide and Pangloss, the character who suffers the most in this novel and demonstrates that the world is far from the best of all possible places is Cudgeon's servant, the old woman. With the characterization of the old woman, Voltaire makes it quite clear that he is satirizing human suffering and the value of philosophy that seeks to endorse or even defend one's existence in such a cruel world. The old woman went from having the brightest of futures -- that of being a beautiful woman of noble and wealthy lineage preparing to marry a prince -- to the worst of all possible fates. She lived to see everyone that she cared for, including the prince she was to marry as well as her family members, killed and oftentimes raped. She herself is raped on numerous occasions, beaten savagely, taken advantage of, sold and resold into slavery, and even eaten. Nowhere is the fact that Candide is a satire regarding human suffering and the philosophy that champions it demonstrated more clearly in the fact that the old woman endured having one buttocks eaten. Therefore, when the old woman disputes Pangloss' philosophy with the following quotation, it is readily apparent that her conviction is that of the author himself

…prevail upon each passenger to tell his story, and if there is one of them all that has not cursed his existence many times, and said to himself over and over again that he was the most wretched of mortals, I give you leave to throw me headfirst into the sea (Voltaire 204)

What is important about this quotation is that the old lady is making this statement on a traveling ship which is populated by numerous passengers.

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Her belief that all of these people have "cursed" their lives and believe themselves to be the most "wretched " of all possible people denotes that human existence is akin to suffering. Furthermore, her conviction stands in stark contrast to the empty optimism of Pangloss and the phlosphy he espouses -- which is representative of all philosophy in general. The old woman's life and her opinion reinforce the notion that philosophy about the good of the world is silly.

Voltaire wrote Candide as a means of disparaging the virtue of philosophy and the projected optimism that Pangloss espoused. More than anything else, Candide satirizes the virtue, or even the use, of moral philosophy. It is for this reason that Pangloss has taken up the most ridiculous moral philosophy invented -- that everything that happens for the best. Some contemporary scholars have speculated that Voltaire's mockery of philosophy is attributed to the popularity of the intellectual movement known as the Enlightenment at the time of the writing of Candide. (Kerr 3) and it is for this reason that the characters within this novel incur so much suffering in order to repeatedly emphasize to the reader that such a philosophy, and any philosophy, is foolish. Voltaire's decision to depict this opinion of his through a satire merely reinforces the notion of exactly how silly he believes philosophy is, since by writing a satire he could show some really outrageous examples to counteract this notion.

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