[Buddha-l] Voltaire

[Joy Vriens]

Dan,
>I should add that Candide used to be one of my favorite books when I was a 
>teenager -- one of the first great satires I ever read. Competing popes in 
>Africa and various places, with their own progeny fighting for hegemony, 
>etc. The sort of "speech" Richard wouldn't approve of, but a very true and 
>funny exposé of the religious hypocrisies of the time. Like others of that 
>time (Hobbes, Spinoza, Leibniz, etc.), he favored a secular (in the meaning 
>that term had at that time) version of universal reason over the theocracies 
>of the day. Leibniz in particular popularized the notion of East Asia as a 
>haven of enlightened reason, based on the reports he got from missionaries 
>about neo-confucianism. For Voltaire, it would be a sign of enlightened 
>reason to cross over a cross into a cross-free zone, i.e., some place where 
>reason rather than theocracy reigned. In that, he overestimated and 
>over-romanticized the situation in Japan -- ironic in the sense that 
>romanticism, the quest, etc., was the narrative folly Candide targeted. 
> 
>Or perhaps you read it differently... 

Looks like a good analysis. Last I read it was when I was a student of French literature in Utrecht (Netherlands). half of all the references and allusions went way over my head. I browse through some passages every now and then with lots of respect for the old Voltaire. 

Joy