: What belief is Voltaire specifically criticizing in Candide?
: How is the belief related to the enlightenment as a movement?
: What character expresses Voltaire's feelings?
Voltaire is specifically satirizing Alexander Pope's ESSAY ON MAN which contends that this is "the best of all possible worlds." Pope argued: 1. a God of infinite wisdom exists
2. He created a world which is the bes of all possible ones. 3. The universe is real and hierarchical 4. Authentic good is that of the whole not the isolated pars. 5. self love and social love both motivate man's conduct 6. Virtue is attainable 7. "One truth is clear, WHATEVER IS. . . IS RIGHT." Partial evil, according to Pope contributes to the Universal Good.