Optimism+versus+Pessimism

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** Optimistic Rationalistic Idealists vs Pessimistic Romantics! **

SUMMARY-
 * **OPTIMISTIC RATIONALISTIC IDEALISTS** || **PESSIMISTIC ROMANTICS** ||
 * 1) Believe in the possibility of a perfect society || 1) Believe society is the enemy of the individual ||
 * 2) Believe education perfects man, leading to rational consensus ("right thinking") || 2) Believe education corrupts man ||
 * 3) Believe people naturally seek such consensus || 3) Believe people are willful, impulsive, and emotional ||
 * 4) Believe people are naturally both rational and good || 4) Believe people are emotional and perverse ||
 * 5) Believe thoughts are better than feelings; the head is more reliable than the heart || 5) Believe the heart is more reliable than the head; human feelings are the seat of human identity ||
 * 6) Think the best form of government is a representative democracy led by the most educated members of society || 6) Think the best form of government depends on the inspired leadership of a great man ||
 * 7) Don't believe in God or believe in the idea of One God that is worshipped equally well in all religions; reject dogma, miracle, and mystery || 7) Believe irrational "mystery religions" with strong traditions and clear dogma best meet human needs ||

Optimism in Candide: This world is the best of all possible worlds and was created by the all-good and all-powerful God. Pessimism in Candide: This world is bad and there is no way it can get any better.

In Candide, Voltaire ridicules the optimistic rationalist ideals of the philosophers of his time. The novel follows a hero, Candide, as he travels around the world. During his childhood Candide had been taught by his tutor, Doctor Pangloss, to always think that "everything is for the best" - a typical optimistic view of life. However, after meeting older and wiser characters with pessimistic views of the world and witnessing or being part of many horrendous events during his travels, such as rapings, robberies, an earthquake, unjust executions, etc. Candide eventually abandons his optimistic views. Throughout the story, Voltaire satirizes the foolishness of optimism and the enlightenment. The optimistic views are also heavily linked with Christianity and religion, which he also satirizes and criticizes strongly during the story. An example of this can be seen from the Catholic Inquisitor with a mistress or the Jesuit colonel with homosexual tendencies.

Voltaire himself had never claimed to be a pessimist, but he didn't believe in thinking that everything will always turn out good, if it clearly isn't; he saw this as foolish. However, he never offered any solutions to the optimistic views, which he saw as a problem, of the then modern society.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candide http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Candide/72611

Veera Veijalainen