Voltaire, Candide and Leibniz

Back in high school, I was forced to read Candide, by Voltaire for my European History class. I don't recall a whole lot of it (I think I finished it) but I do remember my dear Dr. Pangloss. In the book, terrible things constantly befall Candide and his friends, among whom is Dr. Pangloss. However, Pangloss remains always optimistic, and continually assures Candide that they are in the "best of all possible worlds" even as they are being sold into slavery, burned, drowned, and separated from their loved ones.

But I always like Pangloss, because I interpreted his catch phrase to mean that while the world isn't perfect, and bad things happen to us, we are in the best possible world, i.e. a more prefect world would be un-creatable. This like for Pangloss made me like Voltaire.

However, a few years later, I was disappointed to learn that Voltaire didn't like Pangloss. Voltaire was a cynical, sarcastic man who included Pangloss in his book in order to make fun of him, and those who thought like him. Voltaire thought it was dumb to call this world "the best of all possible" when it was clearly terrible in so many ways. Not surprisingly, the characters in the book represent various people. And it turns out that Pangloss is Leibniz who indeed was famous (and famously mocked) for believing that we lived in "the best of all possible worlds".

In learning more about Leibniz, it turns out that it wasn't that Leibniz was trying to say that nothing bad happens in life, but that there isn't a possible world without problems, and that our world must have fewer problems than any other conceivable one. It was a theological statement for him, which happens to be exactly what I had interpreted it to mean in the first place.

So, in the end, I was right, but for the wrong reasons. Or, I managed to see through several layers of symbolism, caricature and satire with ease. All depends on how you look at it.