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Voltaire
- published Candide
- era:1694-1778
- -wrote politically and sexually scandalous writing and life.
- -imprisoned in Bastille for writing satirical poetry
- -One of the great enlightenment thinkers
- -Shit happens (it's god's will, one day you will be rewarded)->enlightenment
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Candide [social outcomes]
- Date: 1759
- By: Voltair
- Published annonomously, sold "under the counter"
- Banned within a couple of months in Switzerland/Germany.
- --Remember, what's taken away can just be printed again!
- Tells us: literacy is increasing, cheap to print, related to social change
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Candide [Summary and Analysis]
- Date: 1759
- Satire! uses humor, ridicule, attack of failings
- -Voltaire is not sarcastic, he's just a moron.
- -can you ever be enlightened if you're uneducated? NO!
Linked with Kant, Reusseau, Hobbes, Locke, why?
- Not a novel, but conte philosophique [new genre]
- -created to prove philosophical/moral point
- -critique of optimism
- Summary/Analysis:
- http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/candide/section1.rhtml
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Pierre Bayle
- 1654-1706
- Is the universe friendly?
- -linked with Hobbes, life is miserable!
- --We experience misery more than happiness
- --good God would not have allowed evil into world
- --more people damned than saved (devil>God)
- --Struggle between good/evil
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Leibniz
- 1646-1716-Optimistic
- -God exists b/c God requires it
- -God creates diversity in universe governed by few principles.
- Challenges?
- -is this the best universe? or on we on the worst world and century?
- -everything is layed out in a plan, no free will, accidents, or improvments.
- How is this "paradise" destroyed he speaks of? how did sin/death take over?
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Candide [challenge to optimism, why?]
- world is chaotic and evil.
- pretend world is good, and DEAL with it!
- Learn to cope with chaos/evil/cultivate our own place
- All is good, we just need to cultivate it
- do what makes you happy
- move where things work for you!
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[Review] Values of Enlightenment
- reject superstition
- challenge irrationality
- secular, human-centered perspective
- rationalism
- experimental method
- education
- self-improvement with arts/literature
- unlimited progress!
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- Just b/c it's funny, doesn't mean it's not serious.
- Later changed
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Claire De Duras
- Date: 1777-1828
- From aristocracy
- wrote Ourika- loosely based on a true story
- published for friends-then best seller
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Ourika
- Date:1823Remember Ourika is our age!
- themes: identity and difference
- --How do I define myself? by not being you.
- ----If you guys are treating us horribly, what are you teaching us? to be like you.
- Ourika's mother doesn't prepare her for the harsh real world.
- just b/c you're born outside of slavery, doesnt mean you're free!
- psychological effects of racism
- Agency is Ourika's anarexia.
- Analysis:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ourika
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The Guillotine
- "rational" execution
- Quick, humane, treat all classes equally, executioner non murderer
- part of french Revolution
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The Estates- General meet
- 1788
- Tradiional mechanism for facing crises
- Hasn't met met in so long, no one remembers knows/agrees
- nobility wants one vote per estate
- third estate wants one vote per member
- third estate (more of a representative government)
- THIRD ESTATE IS EVERYTHING
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