Mock on, Voltaire

HUM 2052: Civilization IISpring 2015Dr. Perdigao

February 6-9, 2015

Voltaire

Not Voltaire

“Voltaire is a singer/songwriter whose music has its roots deeply imbedded in European folk music. His songs speak of love and, most often, the loss thereof with the added twist of how best to seek revenge on the ones who have hurt you. Lyrically, he explores and reveals those moments of vulnerability most would rather not discuss and exploits with childish abandon those fleeting streaks of cruelty we all feel but choose not to act upon or even mention.”

From Enlightenment to the Romantics

Mock On, Mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau

Mock on, Mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau; Mock on, Mock on, ‘tis all in vain.You throw the sand against the wind,And the wind blows it back again.

And every sand becomes a GemReflected in the beams divine;Blown back, they blind the mocking Eye,But still in Israel’s paths they shine.

The Atoms of DemocritusAnd Newton’s Particles of lightAre sands upon the Red sea shore,Where Israel’s tents do shine so bright.

--William Blake (692)

Foundations• Voltaire, François-Marie Arouet (1694-1778)

• Louis XIV’s control over French printing press, difficulty for French to gain access to literature of the Enlightenment (Perry 428)

• Voltaire introduced to new ideas through Parisian salons

• Travels to Dutch Republic and London—becomes philosophe

• Arrested during fight in Paris, anger at French church similar to hostility of exiled French Protestants (Perry 428)

• Influenced by ideas of Isaac Newton, that mathematical laws govern the universe, the significance of human reason to “establish general rules that seemed to explain the behavior of physical objects” (Perry 428)

• Influence of John Locke, idea that “people should believe on the ideas received from the senses” (428), demystifying religion, matters of faith

• Locke (1632-1704)—most widely read political philosopher; Two Treatises of Government promoting “notion of government by consent of the people” (Perry 430); social contract; idea of “natural rights”

Foundations• In England, sees freedom of thought, social and religious toleration

that countered French absolutism and power of French clergy, visibility of mix of bourgeois and aristocratic social groups

• His books banned in France

• Voltaire’s Letters Concerning the English Nation (1733)—constitutional monarchy, Newtonian science, and religious toleration as models for implementation in Europe (Perry 428)

• Called for rule of law, freer press, religious toleration, humane treatment of criminals, and a more effective system of government administration (Perry 429)

• Attack on values of eighteenth-century French society

From Quixote to Candide• Candide (1759)

• Tragedy, epic, history, philosophy, fiction

• Mocking fiction, its construction and constructedness

• From immediacy of experience to theoretical abstractions—work of Enlightenment philosophers?

• Ideal of reason vs. practical applications

• Creation and destruction

• Passivity vs. activity

• From conquest to “Of Cannibals” to questions of morality and ethics in Voltaire

• Indignation

• Role of the lover—loss of ideal

Cultivation• “Voltaire shows how the claim of a rational universal order avoids the

hard problems of living in a world where human beings have become liars, traitors, and so on” (376)

• Voltaire trained by Jesuits, intellectual elite of Church

• Candide is new Adam, earnest, naïve

• Two approaches

• Pangloss:a priori (based on theory)

• Martin:a posteriori (derived from facts)

• A priori and a posteriori reasoning

• Material facts versus abstract ideals (Machiavelli/Montaigne, Don Quixote’s world(s))

Philosophical Paradigms• “Everything is for the best in this best of all possible worlds” (375)

• Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (German philospher): philosophical optimism, belief in “unknowable universal order—roughly equivalent to Christian Providence—but no lack of awareness about the actual misery and depravity that human beings experience” (375)

• Candide presents the world “as though no disaster could have permanent or ultimately destructive effects” as Voltaire ridicules “outmoded philosophical system with no particular relevance to us” (376) [“Then you never were raped? You never had your belly ripped open, as the philosopher Pangloss assured me?” “Oh yes, said the lovely Cunégonde, but one doesn’t always die of these two accidents” (387)]; “it’s a mania for saying things are well when one is in hell” (410)

• Philosophes saw churches as inciting the “fanaticism and intolerance that led to the horrors of the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the wars of the Reformation” (Perry 425)

Thematic Elements• Religion• Jacques the Anabaptist• The Inquisition/Auto-da-fé• Grand Inquisitor• Pope Urban X• The baron (Jesuits)• Eldorado

• Science• “Experimental physics”• Eldorado

• Politics• Bulgars and Abares• Six

Strangers

• Human Rights/Freedom• Under the Inquisition• Slavery (Mr. Vanderdendur)• Women

Thematic Elements• Literature• Plays/theatre• Lord Pococurante (426)

Billing• Westphalia• Baron of Thunder-Ten-tronckh• Pangloss• Cunégonde• Bulgars and Abares• Jacques, Anabaptist• Grand Inquisitor• Don Issachar• Old Woman: story to “pass the time” (396)• Pope Urban the Tenth and Princess of Palestrina• Cacambo• Jesuits• Biglugs—as savage • Eldorado• Martin• Paquette, Brother Giroflée• Lord Pococurante (426-428)• Chapter 26: six strangers • Dervish• farmer

Optimism Unbound• After losing gold and diamonds, Candide says, “We are destined, in

the end, for another universe. . . No doubt that is the one where everything is well. For in this one, it must be admitted, there is some reason to grieve over our physical and moral state.”

• “All will be well. . . Surely it is the New World which is the best of all possible worlds.” (391)

Ideologies• Lord Pococurante—“nothing can be done, nothing should be done, or

nothing matters” (376)

• Cause and effect

• Needs garden—cultivate own garden

• Avoiding boredom, vice, and poverty (437)

• Philosophy of life and how to construct

• Return to Paradise—from Paradise Lost

• Ending is new garden—we must make it

• Utopia—possibility of new garden of new century

• Candide—knows what happiness is