All is for the best in the best of possible worlds.

Name	M. de Voltaire
Life	1694 - 1778
Country	France
Category	Idealism
Wikipedia	>>

Man is a fallen creature with original sin. In man's condition, happiness is nothing natural. It is a gift from God. So are misfortunes just punishments for breaking the covenant or the ten commandments, for man's sinful sexual desires and his greedy avarice. Candide,Voltaire's masterpiece of ridicule of this Jewish-Christian attitude, was directed against Leibniz's attempts to harmonize a resigned self with the visible horrors of the world. This German, deeply religious philosopher, after much contemplation of evil's dominance in the world, had come to the conclusion that we, in spite of all, live in "the best of possible worlds". As is quite normal in the intellectual wars, Voltaire played with words. "Possible" is ambivalent; it can carry your thoughts in two directions. We live in the best of all possible worlds, as reality now is given to us. This is an analytical statement. Or we live in the best of all possible worlds that we can imagine, which would be a normative statement of value. Of course, Leibniz, too, would like to live in a world with less misery! Why this dishonesty of Voltaire? Because below the linguistic play lies a much deeper question, that of man's free will, in which Voltaire wanted to believe, or a deterministic outlook as destiny largely given by God or nature, as Leibniz thought. Is the world in which we live the best man can create? Voltaire, who evidently was a strong adrenalinomaniac with great power ambitions, said "Yes!" Leibniz, more timid and withdrawn,

doubted we could do much. He tended to say "No!", perhaps thinking of the French dictum that "the more it changes, the more it remains the same thing". Voltaire put much of the blame for the evils of life on the Church which, he thought, kept man down in resignation in the face of curable evil. "Écrasez l'infame", he wrote, not in his books but, fearful of the censors, in his letters. Voltaire is, on this point, the grandfather of the communists. What Voltaire only dared whisper in his letters, they shouted at the top of their voices. In practice, they literally followed his advice. To crush religion, for instance, the communists tore down the famous "Cathedral of Christ the Saviour" in Moscow and used the place for a public bath. Now, following the truths of Vico, it has been rebuilt. It is one sign of victory of civilization's attempts to come back to Russia. Today the misfortunes of men and women seem to remain. We are richer. In peaceful times we may even be a grain more satisfied, even "happier". But, still, the French Revolution came one year after Voltaire died. And no century has been so murderous as the 20th, 200 years after Voltaire. Why? Is it possible that the behavior leading to our unhappiness lies not in religion, but in a high degree of biological determination? Not in a God, but in Genes? Did Leibniz possibly have a deeper insight into man's biological nature? Was Voltaire mainly an hubristic manifestation of the huge vanity and the strong will to power innate in that nature?