The Age Of Enlightenment By Voltaire And Economist Adam Smith

Mankind often adapt to terrible environments, which are almost impossible to escape. Hence, even when humans are giving the opportunity to live in better conditions; they often return back to where they were unhappy. Without a doubt, this was displayed in Candide; specifically when he and Cacambo visited the town of Eldorado, an Utopic land. Although the conditions in Eldorado were better than any of Candide’s previous encounters; he still returned to his homeland in search of Cunegonde; simply because the town of had no use to him. Therefore, it’s evident that Voltaire uses great ironic scenes to highlight the importance of values.

Utopia is nowhere. Not in ignorant bliss, nor in gold covered valleys. True happiness is in simplicity. This is what’s presented in Candide, the short picaresque novel by Voltaire. In this novel of many misadventures, the characters are moved from the finest of settings to the most realistic and darkest of situations. In the end after encountering all sorts of diverse conflicts, it is in the most basic of places that the main characters find their true calling and peace.

Eldorado is another contrast to this "best of all possible worlds." It is described as an extremely peaceful and serene country. It is a place that has no need for laws, jails, war, or material goods, which makes it "impossible" to find. Voltaire uses Eldorado as an epitome of the "best of all possible worlds," because it contrasts the real outside world in which war and suffering are everyday occurrences.

Candide was a novel published in 1759 by Francois-Marie Arouet, known best by the pseudonym “Voltaire”. It was written primarily to satirize German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz 's “theodicy”, which was a philosophy Leibniz designed to explain why evil exists in the world. He maintained that we live in the “best of all possible worlds”, an idea Voltaire dismantled in Candide with biting attacks on philosophy, religion, politics, and social order. One of the most unusual displays of satire he invoked was in the novel 's description of El Dorado, which was apparently a utopian society. However, Voltaire rejects that ideal, not only with open satire but with subtext, and this is why Candide ultimately decides to leave.

Voltaire was a philosopher that many people would not forget. Candide lives in the castle of Baron Thunderten Tronckh in Westphalia. The circumstances that Candide was born was that he combined a true judgement with simplicity of spirit. Voltaire satirizes the optimism espoused by the philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment. This was a story of a young man’s adventure throughout the world and had seen many evil and disasters. Throughout his journey, he sticks to the teachings that Pangloss taught him, believing that, "All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.” Though Voltaire was no pessimist, he refused to believe that what happens is always for the best.

Candide tells the story of a young man, who lives in the castle of the Baron, who loves the baron’s daughter Congounde, and also Where he meets Doctor Pangloss, the philosopher, who teaches him about philosophical optimism, the idea that "all is for the best , in this best of all worlds." Candide first accepts this philosophy, but as he experiences the horrors of war, poverty, the maliciousness of man, and the hypocrisy of the church, he begins to doubt Pangloss 's theory. Thus, the novel is a fairytale, with an ironic style of writing in which Voltaire criticize some of the major issues in the society back then. Such as philosophical optimism and women’s rights of equality, also wars, churches and the concept of Utopia run throughout the novel.

Candide's visit to Eldorado, the famous lost city of the New World, is a high-water check. Here all is tranquil and quiet. Individuals live in supreme amicability. Enduring and destitution is obscure. There is no eagerness, and the locals grin at Candide's enthusiasm for the gold and gems that lie on the ground as "earth and stones." Eldorado is the ideal world. As a result of his

of The Enlightenment. The Enlightenment was revolutionary because of Voltaire, a writer that used his ideas to attack the established Catholic Church, and to propagate the freedom of religion, scientific thoughts, skepticism and experiential philosophy.

Through these themes, Voltaire shows how the world is so corrupt to be “the best of all possible worlds”, and he’s able to challenge these optimistic beliefs in a satirically way by having his characters undergo traumatic hardships and misery that serve no purpose in making the world a better place and only makes them suffer. Although all the characters in Candide are

Voltaire's work Candide is an absurd, irrational story that takes the reader to almost every part of the world in a critical analysis of enlightenment thought. Readers may view Candide as a work that encompasses enlightenment thought. On the contrary however, Candide is indeed a correction and criticism of popular enlightenment ideals. Mainly, Voltaire focuses on the irrationality of the "best of all worlds" philosophy and in the end, concludes that there will never be a utopia on earth. Through an analysis of Pangloss and Eldorado, this will be demonstrated.

Such ideologies are ridiculed within ‘Candide,’ to which is evident within the premise of the novel, as reinforced by the quotation “Il avait le jugement assez droit, avec l’esprit le plus simple; c’est, je crois, pour cette raison qu’on le nom-mait Candide.” Within this quotation, Voltaire propagates the philosophy of Optimism within the forlorn of Candide for whom is depicted with a high degree of naiveté and a subsequent product of ‘Panglossian’ theories. This is

Voltaire's Candide is the story of how one man's adventures affect his philosophy on life. Candide begins his journey full of optimism that he lives in "the best of all possible worlds," but he learns that it is naïve to say that good will eventually come of any evil.

This passage shows that even though Candid’s journey is full of excitement and twist and turns, his journey also shows the misery and hardships others and Candid must face. Voltaire also shows how places become when they are not “built by love” (95). By throwing his character into theses horrible situations shows how important it is to build on that idea of unity. To continue on by placing the fictional land of El Dorado illustrates to the reader what a place can become if people come together instead of fighting. Because of this mindset it contradicts Voltaire’s cynical thinking and just because he was a main figure in the Enlightenment period, an area that celebrated it’s individualism, did not meant Voltaire had to opposed every idea others

Candide’s South American wanderings in many respects become the apex of the Optimistic world view. The zenith of it comes once Candide and Cacambo stumble into Eldorado. The city of Eldorado, compared to their European contemporaries, can be qualified as a utopia. Eldoradan society and law are predicated on the ideals of equality for all, unlike in European where the idea is spoken but not put into practice. Eldorado society is described to be perfect in every way. There are no courts, no prisons; it is described to be a perfect society. The idea of Eldorado can be suggested as a false hope for Candide and Optimism because of the preposterously perfect society of Eldorado. Also due to the fact that it illustrates how impossible the task would be to undertake by a European to create a similar society. This fact especially is made clear by the king of Eldorado, “We have always hitherto been safe from the rapacity of European nations with their unaccountable fondness for the pebbles and dirt off our land, and who would kill us to the very last man just to lay their hands on the stuff” (Voltaire, Candide, 48).

Throughout history, books have influenced the world. Some books, such as the Bible, have influenced Christians. Common Sense by Thomas Paine encouraged Americans to join the fight against the British. Other books, however, do more than simply encourage; they introduce a new philosophy. The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith is claimed to aid the philosophy of what would one day become modern economics. One author wrote two books that would change the course of history. These books would lay foundations to communism and influence leaders like Lenin and Tse-Tung. Capital and The Communist Manifesto were both written by Karl Marx and have forever changed the course of history.