CANDIDE VOLTAIRE
The French writer and philosopher, whose real name was François Marie Arouet, was known in history by his pseudonym ‘Voltaire’. Voltaire, who made a great contribution to the French revolution and the enlightenment movement, was one of the thinkers who were known as ‘philosophers’ in 18th century France and believed in the supremacy of reason. As an ardent advocate of creationism in the salons of Paris, he attracted the reaction of religious circles, and he was attracted to England because it allowed freedom of thought. He fought tirelessly against tyranny and bigotry and influenced the development of European civilization just before the age of revolution with his critical ability, sharp wit and satire. In his 1734 Lettres philosophiques (Letters of Philosophy), he ended his letters praising Newton with an attack on Pascal, arguing that the purpose of life was not to reach heaven through repentance, but to ensure the happiness of all people by advancing in science and art.
Voltaire, who met many different cultures from France to England, Germany to Switzerland during his lifetime, wrote (Candide ou de l’optimisme) in 1759, one of his most important works in the picaresque genre. Voltaire wrote his work to criticize Leibniz’s philosophy of optimism, which argued that the suffering in the world was a necessity and that it was not possible for God to create a better world. In his work, Voltaire mercilessly satirizes Leibniz’s basic philosophical ideas, while frequently criticizing and ridiculing Leibniz’s ideas of “This world is the best of all possible worlds” and “In the best of all possible worlds, all events are interconnected” throughout the endless chain of negativity experienced by the main protagonists in his work. In addition, Leibniz’s principle of sufficient reason (the reason why something is the way it is is because it could not be otherwise) has also received its share of criticism through black humor. Voltaire was exiled from France for criticizing the state and the church at the time he wrote Candide. Candide, the character he created with the contribution of the problems he experienced, also became a representation of society. In many places, Candide is referred to as a work that reveals Voltaire’s critical view of the world with a sarcastic language. With this work, Voltaire, who deals with countries, kings, customs and traditions of nations, and the human character of his own age with a cynical approach, gives remarkable information about the world of his time. In fact, the book is a satirical work in which the half-laughable, half-tragic events that happen to the protagonist, whom Voltaire named Candide (meaning pure white and clean in Turkish), are described. This book of adventures is also a criticism of the optimistic worldview; a criticism of the belief in the “everything will work out as it will” approach.
Candide, not unlike Zadig, is a young man whose head is filled with optimistic exclamations about life. That whatever happens in this life is something that will end well. Voltaire, I think, through this book, is trying to invite readers to participate in every contemplation of life that has disturbed him so far. A kind of inner drive to prove that our philosophical assumptions are something we should always defend. With Candide’s adventures and the tragic sufferings that continue to afflict him, life is a bitterness that must be accepted gracefully. Of course, as a reader, I don’t always agree with Voltaire, although in some parts, his opinions managed to catch my attention.
Optimism in life, bitterly, I must say, is not unlike the opium that eats away at the heads of religious believers, who believe in a hope about the land promised to them by God, heaven. Through these expectations of a better life, instead of being happy, our reasoning is slowly led to close our eyes to the reality: that in fact, life is independent of the perspective of good and bad. That it is man who places value in it, solely to release him from the shackles of his own existential absurdity. To be swept away in the opiate of false happiness.
But, no matter how optimistic Candide approached the irrationality of people’s thinking in general, Voltaire did not forget to include debates to challenge his own initial assumptions. In fact, if observed from a more careful side, I think Voltaire deliberately hit his arguments in such a way. Either to prove the robustness of the argument or the opposite. But through the supporting characters in this book, Voltaire wrote the story of Candide in order to experience a shock of faith in his life. In the last part of the book, he even felt despair over the principles he had previously believed in. That optimism is the most ridiculous ridiculousness he has ever kept in his skull so far. That life is a never-ending mass of suffering, a pot of misfortune, injustice, evil, ugliness, greed and so on. These philosophical contradictions are very much felt in the dialogues, the power is alive with beautiful rhetorical embers.
Interestingly enough, although the storyline is linear and almost exactly like Zadig, the appeal of the dialogues is not to be doubted. This book contains high philosophical value, with his satirical style.
Even more interestingly, in the last section, Voltaire surprised me with his advice about work. It was as if he wanted to conclude that life is not worth pondering over philosophical theories for too long. Instead of finding answers to those complicated questions, we’d be stuck in a maze of confusion and annoying hypotheses. Voltaire, in a fit of passion, said that man should work, hoe his own garden, so as not to get lost in absurd contemplations about his life.
“Let’s work, then, and not argue…” Martin said. “ Martin said. “It’s the only way to make life worthwhile.”
The problem with this thought is that even if we would like to immerse ourselves eternally trying to drown our conscience, the conscience will always find a way out and will always be present to intimidate us and remind us that nothing we do has any sense and that it is useless to immerse ourselves in any illusion.