Don't forget, however, that Voltaire was a rationalist Enlightenment thinker who was speaking of the need to avoid blind optimism or fatalism. He was making fun of the philosophy of Leibniz in Candide by arguing that there is something to be done about the evils in the world...they should not be taken as life's brutalities that cannot be changed. Intellect and reason--counter with the Church's dogma too--are the best guides.
He may have been skeptical, but I'd say Voltaire was far from the idea you describe. That would be more of what was being satirized.
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Date: 2006-01-08 10:29 am (UTC)From:He may have been skeptical, but I'd say Voltaire was far from the idea you describe. That would be more of what was being satirized.