Voltaire

Tells the story of Candide, a naive youth, who is conscripted, shipwrecked, robbed, and tortured by the Inquisition without losing his will to live

Candide

Micromégas

Michael Wood

Theo Cuffe

Candide, Or, Optimism

dig a vraiment out PC) eau naturel fortifié par l'éducation ", ce jeune Babylonien intelligent et généreux est un modèle de Zadig a vraiment tout pour être heureux ! " Doué d'un beau naturel fortifié par l'éducation ", ce jeune Babylonien intelligent et généreux est un modèle de sagesse et de vertu. Malheureusement, le destin prend un malin plaisir à le persécuter. Un jour Premier ministre à Babylone, Zadig est désavoué le lendemain à cause de l'amour qu'il porte à la reine Astarté. Il s'enfuit alors en Egypte, où le voilà bientôt réduit en esclavage ... Zadig réussira-t-il enfin à trouver le bonheur ?

Zadig

This enlarged edition of Mario Bunge's Dictionary of Philosophy is a superb reference work for both students and professional philosophers. In one volume Bunge covers all the major branches of contemporary philosophy, logic, semantics, metaphysics, and epistemology, as well as practical and applied philosophies. Most entries are brief and nontechnical in nature, highlighting useful philosophical terms rather than trendy ones. Placing his emphasis on living philosophy, Bunge deliberately excludes many of the archaic terms and philosophical curios of other dictionaries. He incorporates a number of minipapers or longer definitions of some terms, and critically analyzes such influential doctrines as existentialism, deconstructionism, phenomenology, idealism, pragmatism, materialism, utilitarianism, deontological ethics, and many others. Bunge offers constructive alternatives to all philosophical approaches he criticizes.

Philosophical Dictionary

Candido o l'ottimismo

" Mais, monsieur, dit le bailli avec son ton imposant, comment avez-vous pu abandonner ainsi père et mère ? - C'est que je n'ai jamais connu ni père ni mère ", dit l'étranger. La compagnie s'attendrit, et tout le monde répétait : Ni père, ni mère ! " Nous lui en servirons, dit la maîtresse de la maison à son frère le prieur ; que ce monsieur le Huron est intéressant ! " L'Ingénu la remercia avec une cordialité noble et fière, et lui fit comprendre qu'il n'avait besoin de rien. Chapitre premier.

texte intégral

L'ingénu

Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are. Voltaire's short, radical and iconoclastic essays on philosophical ideas from angels to idolatry, miracles to wickedness, make wry observations about human beliefs, and mock hypocrisy and extravagant piety - his call to his fellow men to act with reason and see through the lies they are fed by their leaders has provided inspiration to freethinkers everywhere.

Miracles and Idolatry

Letters on England

One of the most important essays on religious tolerance and freedom of thought, a French bestseller in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks In 1762 Jean Calas, a merchant from Toulouse, was executed after being falsely accused of killing his son. As it became clear that Calas was in fact persecuted for being a Protestant, Voltaire began a campaign to get his sentence overturned and in the process made the case for some of the most important values upheld by the Enlightenment, from religious tolerance to freedom of thought. "Treatise on Toleration" is the story of that case and a screed against fanaticism a book that is as fresh and urgent today as it was when it was first published in 1763. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators."

Treatise on Toleration

Candido, ou o Optimismo

كنديد أو التفاؤل

Candido-L'ingenuo

Roger Pearson

"The story of Candide, a naive youth who is conscripted, shipwrecked, robbed, and tortured by the Inquisition without losing his will to live, is accompanied by four other stories"--NoveList.

Candide and Other Stories

The story is organized into seven brief chapters. The first describes Micromegas (small/large), an inhabitant of one of the planets that orbits Sirius. His home world is 21.6 million times greater in circumference than the Earth. Micromegas stands 120,000 feet (about 23 miles) tall. When he is almost 450 years old, approaching the end of his infancy, Micromegas writes a scientific book examining the insects on his planet, which at 100 feet are too small to be detected by ordinary microscopes. This book is considered heresy, and after a 200-year trial, he is banished from the court for a term of 800 years. Micromegas takes this as an incentive to travel around the Universe in a quest to develop his intellect and his spirit. After extensive celestial travels he arrives on Saturn, where he befriends the secretary of the Academy of Saturn, a man less than a twentieth of his size (a "dwarf" standing only 6,000 feet tall). They discuss the differences between their planets. The Saturnian has 72 senses while the Sirian has 1,000. The Saturnian lives for 15,000 Earth years while the Sirian lives for 10.5 million years; Micromegas reports that he has visited worlds where people live much longer than this, but still consider their lifespans too short. At the end of their conversation, they decide to take a philosophical journey together. Eventually, they arrive on Earth and circumnavigate it in 36 hours, with the Saturnian only getting his lower legs wet in the deepest ocean and the Sirian barely wetting his ankles. They decide that the planet must be devoid of life, since it is too small for them to see with the naked eye. In the Baltic Sea, the Saturnian happens to spot a tiny speck swimming about, and he picks it up to discover that it is a whale. As they examine it, a boatful of philosophers returning from an Arctic voyage happens to run aground nearby. The space travellers examine the boat and, upon discovering the lifeforms inside it, they conclude that the tiny beings are too small to be of any intelligence or spirit. Yet they gradually realize the beings are speaking to each other, and they devise a hearing tube with the clippings of their fingernails in order to hear the tiny voices. After listening for a while, they learn the human language and begin a conversation, wherein they are shocked to discover the breadth of the human intellect. The final chapter sees the humans testing the philosophies of Aristotle, Descartes, Malebranche, Leibniz and Locke against the travellers' wisdom. When the travellers hear the theory of Aquinas that the universe was made uniquely for mankind, they fall into an enormous fit of laughter. Taking pity on the humans, the Sirian decides to write them a book that will explain the point of everything to them. When the volume is presented to the Academy of Science in Paris, the secretary opens the book only to find blank pages."

Voltaire

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