….tout l'ouvrage de Pope fourmille de pareilles obscurités Voltaire admired Pope but had little patience for all the abstract complexities of Optimist theory. One truth is clear, “Whatever IS, is RIGHT.” Pope was a great admirer of Leibnitz and in his verse he expressed the creed of Optimism at its most simplistic.Īll chance, direction which thou canst not see Īnd, spite of pride, in erring reason’s spite, Voltaire was acquainted with the ideas of Optimism through his friendship with the English poet Alexander Pope, whom he got to know during his period of exile in England (1726-1728). His ideas in general supported an Optimistic view of creation. His metaphysical ideas were complex, subtle and not very amenable to popular interpretation, but there was drawn from them an assertion of one single God, in conflict with the ideas of the Manicheans. Bayle’s view was therefore pessimistic.Īt the same time in Germany, the eminent German rationalist philosopher, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716), confronted these questions and came to conclusions more compatible with conventional Christianity. He stated unequivocally that God could not be both all-powerful and all-good, since if He were, there would be no evil in the world, and it was obvious that evil abounded. Having found asylum in Holland, he forcibly argued the case for Manichaeism. Pierre Bayle (1647-1706), had raised again the controversial question of the existence of evil. It was to take the Revolution of 1789 to remove the Old Order.ĭuring the repressive reign of Louis XIV, nevertheless, a French theologian. The Monarchy and the Church maintained their resistance to change and this was reflected in the constant threat that Voltaire and his fellow reformers lived under. The monolithic structure of monarchic rule, which had reached its height in the previous reign, was beginning to weaken and fall apart. Under the Regency that followed the death of Louis XIV and after 1723, when the new king, Louis XV, came of age, a freer atmosphere began to prevail and 18th century France became a period of new thinking, political, philosophical, moral and religious. THE REVIVAL OF DEBATE ON THE EXISTENCE OF EVIL IN THE 18TH CENTURY- THE SCHOOL OF OPTIMISMĭuring the monarchy of Louis XIV (1643- 1715), when the King and the Church formed together one absolute and unshakable authority, there was no room for questioning either political or theological. « Oui, dit Martin mais fallait-il que les passagers qui étaient sur son vaisseau périssent aussi? Dieu a puni ce fripon, le diable a noyé les autres.» «Vous voyez, dit Candide à Martin, que le crime est puni quelquefois ce coquin de patron hollandais a eu le sort qu'il méritait. In Chapter 10- page 112, Candide consoles himself that a violent thief had drowned with all his ill-gotten gains and justice was done, Martin reminded him of the deaths of the innocent) ( In the book, it is Martin who recommends Manichaeism. The church condemned those that put forward these views as heretics, labelling them “Manichaeans” to associate these deviant Christians with the dualistic theology of a Persian religion by this name which was strong from 300 to 600 AD. This was the Devil, who was sometimes portrayed as a fallen angel. In previous centuries some Christians were prepared to accept that the good God that they worshipped was not able to fully protect them from suffering and evil and formed the conclusion that there was a second malignant power active in the world. It was difficult, however to reconcile this explanation with the existence of the benign all-powerful God of traditional Christianity, because:Ī) If God was all-powerful but allowed his people to undergo such hardships, he could not be benign.ī) If God was benign but could not protect his people from these hardships, he was not all powerful The second explanation was that an alternative, negative, destructive force was active in the world. The objection to this was that suffering was often not proportionate to any possible sin and many of those who were made to suffer were evidently innocent, undeserving of their cruel fateĢ. He had abused the free will which God had given him and had chosen evil. The first explanation was that Man had fallen from God’s grace. "If the creator is benevolent and all powerful why is there evil and suffering in the world?"ġ. The basic question can be expressed in the following way: Philosophical Optimism was an attempt to solve the problem of suffering and evil in the world- a question which has been discussed by philosophers and theologians for centuries. The centuries old debate about the existence of suffering and evil in the world Optimistic philosophy VOLTAIRE AND PHILOSOPHICAL OPTIMISM
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |