Asel Kul.
There are three different types of beliefs when it comes to the question "where does evil come from?"; epicurus, manichean, and monotheist. epicurus is the belief that god is benevolent and omnipitent and all is for the best. Humans cannot critisise god or god's plan nor can they fully understand his greater work. Alexander Pope wrote "An Essay On Man" with this belief, writting about how humans have their place in the world and that every missfortune happens for a reason, for the greater good. The second belief is manechean, also known as dualism, which is focused on the idea that good and evil are fighting an eternal battle with no ending. The idea of the yin-yang harmony, that there's a little bit of good in evil and a little bit of evil in good. The third reasoning is monothist a belief that there is a powerfull God but humans have free will and are able to make their own decisions. We haven't come across manichean yet, but we have read epicurus and monotheist works.
Right now we are reading Candide by Voltaire, a story about a young man's adventures through a missfortune filled life. Voltaire satarises Pope's Essay on Man by compressing every possible horrible phenominom into Candide's life and by including the character Pangloss who is an epicurus pholosopher. Pangloss believes that all missfortunes happen for a better world "all is for the best. For if there's a volcano at lisbon, it couldn't be anywhere else. For it's impossible for things not to be where they are. For all is well" (pg 30). At the beginning of the story, Candide innocently believes Pangloss and the idea that everything is for the greater good, but throughout the book the monothist belief is introdused through other characters and their own personal stories. After Cunegonde told Candide of her missfortunes since the attack of the Bulgars, she said that she no longer believed in Pangloss' theory that everything is for the better world. This put even more doubt into the philosopher's theory because when voyaging to the new world, Candide says "We're going to another world, it must be the one in which all is well" (pg 41). Candide no longer accepts the world given to him in Europe and believes that he can find a better one in the Americas, therefore using free will and transitioning from epicurus to monotheist.
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4 comments:
Nice overview of the context, how the Enlightenment was changing how people were moving from the simplistic viewpoint to what is more commonly accepted today. Well done!
Nowadays, it seems as all three of these beliefs systems are somnewhat combined to form today's beliefs. However, it seems that religious belief systems try to focus more and more on how to achieve good, and not trying to understand what makes evil. To some degree, though, it is understandable that some of these beliefs are unachievable in their truest form, much like the idea of communism. Perhaps that's why Candide is such an important work. It's silly to think that every event in life is absolutely for the best (Epicurean), and Voltaire makes that point well known. Too much positivity might be a bad thing as well, considering that it would make it more difficult to relate to others' pain. Maybe it could even make one less apt to avoiding life threatening tasks, considering that they might bring about death, an obviously un-positive occurence.
I thought about this article and mainly focused on Pangloss. I don’t know if I’m off my rocking horse but Pangloss may represent the Catholic Church during this time period of the earth quake in Portugal. Pangloss and the Catholic Church? Who would ever think of that? Well as you said Asel that Pangloss thinks for everything is for the best. This can be related to the Catholic Church in their belief that God was mad at Portugal and thus cleansed the country. But the really funny thing that I saw in the book was that even though Pangloss supported his theory very well he did not believe in that everything was for the best which struck me as astonishing once I first read it. Because it was contradictory just like what the Catholic Church did to people to repent for their sins which they paid for literally with money. But the religion also said that god could forgive sins. So both of the Catholic Church and Pangloss could be interrelated in Candide.
Connor, I agree with your comment about how it seems that all these beliefs are intertwined these days. I have really been thinking about these and thats the best answer I can come up with. But I guess this is a never ending topic because no one can prove where Evil comes from and why it affects who it does.
Brandon, I am confused about why God would have been mad at Portugal and why the Catholics would have thought that. Please help me understand.
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