The Optimistic Philosophy in Candide by Voltaire Essay

Why do bad things happen to good people? A question often asked by...well, by just about everyone. It is a frequently asked question that philosophers and religious figures have tried to answer for centuries yet no one can pinpoint the answer. Candide is no doubt Voltaires response to the answer given by some of the philosophers of his time. The philosophy discussed throughout the novel gives meaning to the story itself and contributes to and carries on throughout the entire story. In the Barons castle somewhere in Germany the main characters reside for a short time. Pangloss, the philosopher and teacher of the Barons children, has a radical philosophy on life and passes it to his students. This philosophy doesnt help them†¦show more content†¦Providing a simple explanation for Pangloss optimistic philosophy that we live in the best of all possible worlds this quote appears in the first chapter of the story and sets up one of the main themes throughout the novel. Its basically the logic behind Pangloss philosophy, though it makes no sense. It seems quite obvious that spectacles were designed to fit the nose and not the other way around. These are the first of many very illogical arguments to support his philosophy. As the novel progresses this philosophy goes under brutal attacks by the misfortunes the characters come across again and again throughout their lives. It also sets up the never-ending debate between those characters with the optimistic vie w and those with the pessimistic view. Voltaire uses Pangloss philosophy to demonstrate a point. Because he so strongly opposes this philosophy its a recurring theme in the novel. The optimistic view is also the main example of satire from Voltaire in the novel and this is probably the purpose for writing the novel. It could be interpreted as his response to philosophers of the time, G.W. von Leibniz in particular. Leibniz claimed that because God is perfect, all good and all-powerful, He wouldnt create a less than perfect world; therefore, we live in the best of all possible worlds. Leibniz also said that evil isShow MoreRelatedVoltaire s Candide - Denouncing Providence1503 Words   |  7 PagesVoltaire’s Candide – Denouncing Providence Eighteenth century France was ruled by the divine power of Louis le XIV, the regime of absolutisme followed, restricting the liberties and creating a corrupt society founded on providence and religious determinism. Les Philosophes des Lumià ¨res notably Voltaire instilled logic and reason to combat theological and metaphysical solutions surrounding French populations whilst pushing for a separation between the Catholic church and the state. 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The events throughout the novel, even if they have some connections or roots in historical events, are seemingly preposterous and embellished because of Voltaireâ€℠¢s heavy use of satire. However, Voltaire merely uses these embellishmentsRead MoreThe Life and Work of Francois-Marie Arouet, a.k.a. Voultaire 1745 Words   |  7 Pagesstudy and wanted Voltaire to study law. He went back to school to study law for another two years after his graduation. Voltaire was sent to The Hague, Netherlands in order to act as a secretary to the French ambassador at the time. During his visit, he became infatuated with Catherine Olympe de Noyer. Due to his love affair, Voltaire was discharged from the Dutch country to France â€Å"disinherited, and threatened with exile to the New World.† (Stanley 67). 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He upholds his belief that practical ways of solving problems generate improvement. He believes that human indifference and inaction cause suffering to carry on. Voltaire’s believes that naà ¯ve optimism, absolute pessimism, cruelRead MoreThe Candide By Francois Marie Arouet970 Words   |  4 PagesHistory-H/P8 January 7th 2015 Candide Candide was written by Franà §ois-Marie Arouet or as he is most well known by his pen name, Voltaire. Candide was published by Sirà ¨ne in January 1759. This book was chosen because it is relevant to the Enlightenment through the stories of Candide. mentions many key points that period. One reason why this book is very controversial and important is because the enlightenment believed in the Leibnizian philosophy of blind optimism, but Voltaire criticizes it throughout

Hume s Theory Of Free Will - 2486 Words

1- The purpose of this paper: In this paper, I will defend Hume’s definition of free will in which he emphasized the freedom of action instead of freedom of will. For Hume, freedom means only the absence of external coercive force. I will argue in favor of Hume definition of free will from three perspectives. Firstly, I will argue that Hume’s agnosticism concerning the problem of mind and body relation was the solid epistemological basis for this this definition and it has not been refuted on scientific grounds. Unlike Descartes, Hume didn’t speculate about the nature of human mind and whether it exists independently from the body. Secondly, the narrow definition of free will or freedom of action provides the most intelligible†¦show more content†¦Moreover, God created the world with unbreakable regularity and gave human limited ability to learn and be guided by them. God commanded us to act or not to act at given circumstances and we were given the fre e will to act and not to act, consistent with human ability to learn about regularity of the law of nature. 2- Summary of Hume’s philosophical position in the enquiry: In his inquiry concerning human understanding, David Hume the Scottish philosopher defended his deterministic view of the world. At the same time, he maintained that this view doesn’t contradict with human free will as basis for morality. In that article, Hume proposed the concept of necessity by which he meant that nothing exists without a cause of its existence. It is universally accepted that every natural effect determined by the energy of its cause. It is also a fact of life that the natural law permits no other effect to result from that the same cause under the same exact circumstances. There is, indeed, unbreakable prevailing regularity and interdependence of natural phenomena from which human get guidance for proper course of actions. According to Hume, human learns about causation and necessity from observable regularity in the law of nature. If there is no such

Roster Staff for Hospitality Industry Award -myassignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about theRoster Staff for Hospitality Industry Award. Answer: Introduction The roster planning implies a process of planning the workforce and estimating the payroll cost for the business. It is important for the business to keep plans in place to hire the workforce so as ensure smooth running of business (Fleming and Varghese, 2016). Further, the planning to timing of use of labor is also important because it affects the cost payroll. The workers pay and work timings are regulated by the government of the state and therefore it is essential to prepare the roster according to the rules and regulations. The workers pay and work timing in the hospitality industry in Australia are governed by the Hospitality Industry Award 2010, which provides for the hourly rates, normal working hours, overtime rates, work breaks and holidays. In the context of this, a report has been prepared that covers the roster planning for a restaurant namely Spinach Restaurant. The report covers roaster planning and wages computations for two weeks period for the restaurant. Brief Introduction of Restaurant Spinach restaurant offers fast food and beverages to the customers. The restaurant runs 5 days a week from Wednesday to Sunday with Sunday being opened for brunch only. During four days of the week from Wednesday to Saturday, the restaurant offers dinner only. The restaurant opens at 15:00 and closes at 23:00 during four days of the week (during which dinner is offered). On Sundays, the restaurant opens at 7:00 and closes at 15:00 for brunch. Roster Planning In planning the roaster, the restaurant will abide by the provisions of Hospitality Industry Award 2010 in regards to shift timings, breaks, and wages pay (Fairwork.gov, 2017). As per the Hospitality Industry Award 2010 there are three categories of employees such as full time, part time, and casual. The full time employees are the permanent workers employed to work on a full time basis and receiving fixed salary. Further, the part time employees are the workers appointed on a part time basis and receiving fixed salary. The casual employees are those who are hired on hourly basis and paid on an hourly rate. The casual workers are not the employees of the company rather they are hired on a contract and work as per the terms of the contract (Fairwork.gov, 2017). As per the provisions of hospitality award, a full-time or part time employee can work for a maximum of 11.50 hours in a day or 38 hours in a week. Further, the employer is allowed to average the working hours of a worker over four weeks (Fairwork.gov, 2017). This means that the number of working hours could exceed in a particular week beyond 38 hours but the average number of hours per week over the period of four weeks should not exceed 38 hours. Further, as per hospitality award, the wages rate per hour for the casual worker is $23.51. If the worker works beyond the normal hours, an overtime of 150% of the basic wages rate would be required to be paid. Further, if the worker works on Sunday, the overtime will be 200% of the basic wages rate (Fairwork.gov, 2017). Spinach Restaurant hires two types of labor, one is being fixed wages and another is being paid based on hourly rate. There are four employees such as Suzie (supervisor), Reece (executive chief), Mr. X (Manager), and Adam (Cleaner) employed based on the fixed weekly wages. Further, the employees of the customer services are hired on a contract basis being called casual workers. The casual workers are hired based on the expected number of customer arrival. In the case of brunch, 1 worker for customer service is needed over 30 customers and in the case of dinner, 1 worker is needed over 20 customers. Taking into account the expected number of customers, it is estimated that 5, 8, 9, 10, and 7 workers would be needed to serve the customers on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday respectively. The restaurant keeps Monday and Tuesday as the reserve day off (RDO). The restaurant runs from 15:00 to 23:00 from Wednesday to Saturday and on Sunday, it opens at 7:00 and closes at 15:00. The four workers who are paid a fixed wages are planned to work each day of the week apart from the reserve day offs. Further, the casual workers for customer service are hired on need based. There are five workers namely Alex, Lee, Trump, Obama, and Putin who will work all five days of the week. Further, two casual workers namely Andersen and Ponting are planned to work on four week days from Thursday to Sunday. Gilli another casual worker would work on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Roser would work Friday and Saturday and Nadal would be needed only on Sunday. Wages Cost Estimation In order to make the wages cost estimations, information in regards to wages hourly rate and the hours worked is required (Weygandt, 2004). Based on the roster created for the staff, the permanent workers would work 4s0 hours a week. Working beyond the normal hours would not affect the wages paid to these workers because they are paid a fixed wages. Further, the casual staff hired on an hourly based pay rate would work for 8 hours on daily basis. The maximum normal hours allowed per week for casual workers are 35 hours and if the worker works beyond these 35 hours, he will be paid an overtime. The total fixed pay for the week-1 amounts to $4,850 on which the payroll tax @5% is $242.50, work cover@2% is $97, and superannuation @9.50% is $460.75. Thus, total fixed wages for the week-1 is $5,650.25. The fixed wages for the week-2 will be same as the number of employees and the pay rates are same. Thus, the total fixed wages for the week-2 would also be $5,650.25. The total wages of casual staff for week-1 amounts to $8,945.56 that includes overtime also. The payroll tax on this wages is $447.28; work cover is $178.91, and the superannuation is $849.83. The total casual wages of the week including all the basic, taxes, work cover and superannuation amounts to $10,421.57. The sum of fixed and hourly rate wages for week-1 amounts to $16,071.82 which is slightly higher than the budgeted figure of $15,750 ($45,000*35%). However, total wages of week-2 is lower than the budgeted figure. The total wages of week-2 amounts to $12,566.01 against the budgeted amount of $15,750. Conclusion The discussion carried out in this report revolves around the issues governing the staff roster planning and wages computations. From the discussion, it could be articulated that the roster planning is crucial for the business to run hassle free. Further, estimating the wages cost is essential to reduce the overspending and utilizing the labor resource up to the optimal level. References Fairwork.gov. 2017. Hospitality award. [Online]. Available at: https://www.fairwork.gov.au/employee-entitlements/hours-of-work-breaks-and-rosters/hours-of-work/hours-of-work-industry-specific/hospitality-award [Accessed on: 22 August 2017]. Fleming, S.D. and Varghese, A.C. 2016. Organization and Management of IVF Units: A Practical Guide for the Clinician. Springer. Weygandt, J.J. 2004. Hospitality Financial Accounting. John Wiley Sons.

Racial Equality In America Essays - Discrimination, Racism, Hatred

Racial Equality In America Throughout the history of the country, America has been considered a fairly racist union. Undoubtedly the greatest injustice in the United States to this day is the white's treatment of African-Americans, specifically slavery. The vast majority of non-black people of that time believed that blacks were not equal to other races. White Americans of the slavery period specifically held this view. It was nearly impossible for a black to live free in America, and it was even more difficult for a black to find a job. As time passed, however, many people began to change their views on race relations in America. After slavery was abolished, fewer and fewer people believed that they were supreme over the African-American race. Not only were blacks free, they were becoming accepted as people in our society. They were even becoming accepted in the workplace. Many employers were no longer bothered by giving a job to an African-American. America seemed to finally be turning around for the better. After all, African-Americans only asked for equality, and they were getting closer and closer to that goal with each passingday. Suddenly, however, some people began to lose sight of the mission they set out to accomplish. Instead of just trying to make America equal, they felt that they should attempt to make up for the times when it was not. Many places in society, such as the workplace, the court system, and the entertainment industry, seem to have shifted to being easier for blacks to advance themselves in than whites. The intent, to improve race relations in America, was good. The problem that comes about, however, is that it begins to enter people's minds that it is better to be black than it is to be white. African-Americans should certainly feel confident with themselves, but they should not be given a reason to feel superior, either. Nobody should be able to feel superior to another person simply because of race. Everything that this country has worked for in the last century is compromised by these changes. Black supremacy seems to be promoted more than racial equality, and racial equality must be this nation's goal. Undoubtedly African-Americans have suffered great hardships in America, however, the country today cannot allow their past to influence racial equality. Many aspects of society have become dominated by African-Americans. One reason for this is that there are many things in the United States today that only African-Americans can do. This would not be a problem, except for whites do not have these same kinds of areas that are exclusively for them. The music industry today exemplifies this kind of separation. Rock and roll music was formerly made up of only whites, but gradually African-Americans moved into that genre of music. This is a good thing for racial equality, except for when you look at the other types of dominant music today, rap and rhythm and blues. There is almost no white singers in these entire styles of music. On MTV, there has been only two white rap singers in the history of the channel, and one of them, Vanilla Ice, is the subject of constant ridicule by black rap fans and performers. Many people think that any person could sing these styles of music if they were talented enough. This is not true, however, because African-Americans in this industry tend to be unreceptive to white singers, and because of the overwhelming intimidation they cause, almost no white rap singers continue their careers very far. This same kind of division occurs in today's courtrooms. African-Americans today can claim that they were only arrested for a crime because of their race. For example, OJ Simpson's defense team used this kind of treachery to get an acquittal for him. Despite overwhelming DNA evidence, the defense claimed that a racist police officer set him upto make it look like he committed the murders. Some people may believe that the officer actually did set him up, and it is of course possible that he did. The fact still remains, however, that without the thought of racism in the mind of the jurors, he would have been found guilty by a landslide. The problem here is that only an African-American could use that kind of defense and be taken seriously. A white man could not claim this because no jurors would believe that an African-American would frame a white man out of racial hatred. It just isn't claimed, especially because the man on trail would probably be thought of as a racist for