Let's be real - with some help from Voltaire

“Unhappy mortals! Dark and mourning earth!

Affrighted gathering of human kind!

Eternal lingering of useless pain!

Come, ye philosophers, who cry, "All's well,"

And contemplate this ruin of a world.”

(Poem on the Lisbon Disaster)

Is there a pre-established order? Is this really “the best of all possible worlds”? Is there always an incontestable explanation for everything that happens – even for the evil – in our world? I think we’ve all asked ourselves such questions.

Leibniz’s optimistic answer is one that makes many satisfied. To be happy we must surrender to the pre-established harmony. Today many of us are content by thinking that everything in our world happens for a reason above our will, out of our reach. It is convenient to believe that whatever we do, whatever are our intentions, the outcome doesn’t depend on us.

Being somewhat more convincing, Voltaire demolishes this philosophical optimism in his Candide. How could anyone interpret natural disasters as divine punishments? How could this ever be the best of all possible worlds? Although clearly influenced by current events – the Lisbon earthquake – that had shocked the whole of Europe, he does have a point.

His confutation of philosophical optimism is more realistic than pessimistic. Simply because to believe in Leibniz’s pre-established harmony is naïve, at the very least. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t imagine (hope for?) a better world, when the world we live in is often one of sorrow.

This does not mean we necessarily take on a pessimistic view. Voltaire was against Pascal’s pessimism, he accused him of being a “misanthrope sublime”. Instead he adopted a theoretic skepticism, but also an optimism of reason. This is not the best of all possible worlds. This world is clearly limited: we suffer, we are oppressed. So what do we do? “Cultiver notre jardin”. This is his answer in Candide’s conclusion. Without a system of thought that grants us the certainty of our actions or that justifies the existence of the evil around us, we must trust reason. Through reason man can improve his condition, by being conscious of his limits, by acknowledging the fact that with our reason we cannot know the origins of our destiny.

Though there’s no single answer to these questions, wanting an answer, I believe this middle way is one we an accept. Accepting our condition and acknowledging our limits, while not abandoning philosophical speculation (which however he seems to reject in favor of practical work in Candide's ending), we can “bear” living in our imperfect world.