An Essay on Man vs. Candide
An Essay on Man vs. Candide During the period of Enlightenment, many philosophers began a new way of thinking. For philosopher Alexander Pope in An Essay on Man, Pope believed that, “Whatever is, is right” (L. 294), in that God is in control and every human being is a part of a greater design of God. Voltaire later challenged that belief in Candide with the idea that God does not produce order, but instead, we must produce it ourselves and use reason to give our lives meaning. Pope’s position is more optimistic, while Voltaire’s position takes on a pessimistic view in that it does not allow for the belief in some sort of higher purpose. Drawing from personal experience, Pope’s belief that we perceive troubles as troubles only because we cannot see the entire design is more accurate. Alexander Pope’s position is that God is in complete control. Everything good and bad that happens to people is a part of God’s plan. Every person has a specific purpose in this world, because we are all a part of a greater good. There is a “Great Chain of Being,” and man’s downfall is when he begins to question it, “There must be, somewhere, such a rank as Man: / And all the question (wrangle e’er so long) / Is only this, if God has placed him wrong?” (L. 48-50). Pope’s theory that “Whatever is, is right” (L. 294), also ties in with the belief that everything happens for a reason. I, like Pope, believe that everything a human does is a part of a bigger plan, or may happen for a good reason. For example, one may be running late for work and because they were late, they missed the person that ran the red light, which would have resulted in a wreck for our person that was late to work. Or, that person could have been on time to work and could have ended up in a wreck, which might have been a step in their purpose for life. Everybody has a purpose in this world and everything positive and negative that affects us is for the best. In Candide, Voltaire satirizes Pope’s An Essay on