English 325 week4

1. English 325 week 4A

Candide

Reading: 

Attached pdf of Candide, or Optimism Chapters 1-18 (up to page 25).

A Candid View of Candide

Short, very readable piece from 2011, published in The Guardian newspaper, about the enduring appeal of Candide.  Highly recommended.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jul/01/candide-voltaire-rereading-julian-barnes

Discussion Board Post

How does Voltaire portray El Dorado (Ch. 17-18)?  How does it differ from 18th C. Europe, and what are the religious beliefs of the people?   Why does Candide decide to leave?

250 words

2. English 325 Week 4B

Reading

Finish the Candide, or Optimism (to page 47).

· Liebnitz, the Philosopher

  Liebnitz

It is easy, after reading Candide, to follow Voltaire's lead and mock Liebnitz.  But . . . (from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy*)

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) was one of the great thinkers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and is known as the last “universal genius”. He made deep and important contributions to the fields of metaphysics, epistemology, logic, philosophy of religion, as well as mathematics, physics, geology, jurisprudence, and history. Even the eighteenth-century French atheist and materialist Denis Diderot, whose views were very often at odds with those of Leibniz, could not help being awed by his achievement, writing in his entry on Leibniz in the Encyclopedia, “Perhaps never has a man read as much, studied as much, meditated more, and written more than Leibniz… What he has composed on the world, God, nature, and the soul is of the most sublime eloquence. If his ideas had been expressed with the flair of Plato, the philosopher of Leipzig would cede nothing to the philosopher of Athens.” (Oeuvres complètes, vol. 7, p. 709) Indeed, Diderot was almost moved to despair in this piece: “When one compares the talents one has with those of a Leibniz, one is tempted to throw away one's books and go die quietly in the dark of some forgotten corner.” (Oeuvres complètes, vol. 7, p. 678)

 

So what is this "optimism"?

In philosophic terms, Liebniz was working with the "problem of evil": in a Christian world-view, where God is both all-loving and all powerful, why does He allow evil to happen?  If He is all-loving, why would He subject us to evil?  If He is all-powerful, why doesn't He stop it? 

Voltaire's satire of Liebniz's response to the problem of evil is very simplified: We must be living in the best of all possible worlds, says Dr. Pangloss, because otherwise the perfect goodness of God is suspect. 

For a more nuanced discussion of both the question in general, and how Liebniz actually responded, see:   http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/leibniz-evil/

Discussion Board Post:

In Candide you can see what Daniel Gordon has described as “Voltaire’s double identity”: an engaged Enlightened opponent of injustice and intolerance, but also a skeptic about the limits of reason or theory in confronting the problems of human life.  Discuss these positive and negative aspects of Voltaire’s message in the story. 

250 words

3. English 325 weekly comment

(make sure write where is this quote from into beginning of explanation) (you can find a quote from reading in first assignment).

Students will choose a short excerpt / quote from one of the readings of that week, type it in, then add a short (150 words or so) explanation for your choice. Was your selection important because it:

· is an example of beautiful or striking language?

· exemplifies a particular theme or character?

· makes the reader think about something in a new way?

· reflects a particular aspect of French culture?

· was just something that you liked?

For example:

"Whoever gets knowledge from God, science,

and a talent for speech, eloquence,

Shouldn't shut up or hide away;

No, that person should gladly display."  Marie de France

explanation:

In the opening lines to the Prologue to the Lays, Marie de France is providing her readers with an explanation for writing these stories down.  This is a very common and traditional rhetorical move informing readers about the ethos or qualifications of the speaker.  In this case, Marie is claiming that she is knowledgeable and eloquent and that these gifts come from God and therefore should be used.  I think it goes further than that; Marie, like most women of her day,* would have been expected to "shut up" and "hide away" as a matter of course, since women's voices were not welcomed in the public sphere.  By opening her work in this way, she preempts criticism about the appropriateness of her authorship.