- 01Preface
- 01Alphabetical contents from Preface to Envvy
Candide
Satire of optimism, violence, and institutions.
39Chapters
107Lessons
237Topics
Certificate of completion included
This course was produced by Cavua from a public-domain text.
Skills this course leaves you with.
- Analyze Voltaire’s satire of optimism and human suffering
- Explain how the text critiques institutions and authority
- Identify major Enlightenment themes across the chapters and notes
- Interpret recurring motifs such as free will, destiny, and social hypocrisy
- Compare the work’s treatment of violence, religion, and morality
Curriculum
The full table of contents.
Every chapter, every lesson, every topic — laid out before you enroll. Click any chapter to expand it.
- Chapters
- 39
- Lessons
- 107
- Topics
- 237
- 01Magistrate's plea for divorce and remarriage
- 01Argument against clerical control of marriage
- 02Countess of Arcira's defense of wives
- 01Canon-law dispute over the adulteress
- 02Definition of an advocate
- 03Ancients and moderns debate
- 01Animals as feeling, learning beings
- 02Critique of theories of animal souls
- 01Animals' soul and materialism
- 02Early antiquity and national myths
- 03Fire, water, and barbarian migrations
- 01Newness of the arts and the antiquity of the globe
- 01Astrology and its apparent evidence
- 01Comparing atheism with idolatry
- 02Ancient religion and the usefulness of belief
- 01Reasons of the Worshippers of God
- 02Reasons of the Atheists
- 01Chance and planetary order
- 02Intelligence in animals and human beings
- 03Maupertuis on design in species
- 01Society of atheists and moral restraint
- 02Atheism, idolatry, and fanaticism
- 03Atheism among peoples and the causes of disbelief
- 01Critique of ecclesiastical authority
- 02Advice to authors
- 01Banishment and exile
- 02Bankruptcy and fraudulent insolvency
- 01Relative standards of beauty
- 02Moral actions and maxims as beauty
- 01Samuel Ornik and the bishop's worldly entourage
- 02Books and the power of reading
- 01Boulevart and the origin of bowling-green
- 02Bourges and the vanity of antiquity
- 03Brahmins and Indian sacred books
- 01Character as natural imprint
- 02Character shaped by body, age, and circumstance
- 03Limits of moral reform and cultivation
- 01Charlatanry of medicine
- 01Charlatanry as a political and religious tactic
- 02Charlatanry in science and literature
- 01Charlatanry in philosophy and history
- 02Commercial writing and book production
- 03Useful, clear civil laws
- 01Climate and religious customs
- 02Dogma, conversion, and religious change
- 01Common sense as plain reason
- 02Fear, prejudice, and religious belief
- 01Concatenation of events and fatal necessity
- 01Cause and effect in nature
- 02Genealogical chains of events
- 03Limits of universal influence
- 04The world’s contradictions
- 01Human Contrasts and the Disorder of Law
- 02Origins and Spread of Corn
- 01Cromwell’s rise from Puritan novice to public figure
- 02Military ascent and domination of Parliament
- 01Cromwell's diplomacy, absolutism, and religious hypocrisy
- 02Oliver Cromwell versus Richard Cromwell
- 01Richard Cromwell's refusal of power
- 02Contemptible customs do not always suppose a contemptible nation
- 03The relative vices of democracy and despotism
- 01Homer and the first idea of destiny
- 02Philosophical argument for immutable laws
- 03Replies to objections against fatalism
- 01Devout as a false title of superiority
- 02Limits of the ecclesiastical ministry
- 03The Church, clergy, and spiritual authority
- 01Symbolic language in antiquity
- 02Biblical emblems and allegory
- 01Shakespeare's mixture of grandeur and buffoonery
- 02Addison's disciplined tragedy in Cato
- 03The nature and uses of envy
- 01Natural equality and human dependence
- 01Rich and poor classes in society
- 02Equality, domination, and inequality
- 01Natural equality and social duty
- 02Ancient expiations and repentance
- 03Christian and papal tariffs for sins
- 01Tariff of dispensations and indulgences
- 02Using extremes to judge truth
- 01Ezourveidam and the origins of Adam
- 02Pico della Mirandola and Pope Alexander VI
- 01Faith, impossibility, and papal jesting
- 02False minds and false judgment
- 01What fatherland means
- 02Property, citizenship, and government
- 01Patriotism and the citizen of the world
- 02Final causes in nature and human organs
- 01Epicurus, design, and evidence of purpose in nature
- 02Debate on deception and religion
- 01Philosophers, Providence, and moral usefulness
- 02Locke’s analysis of free will
- 03Liberty as power of action
- 01Formation of the French language from Latin, Celtic, and Germanic sources
- 02Growth of French vocabulary and literary refinement
- 01Friendship as a tacit contract
- 02Dondindac and Logomacos on worship
- 01Definition of history
- 01First foundations of history
- 02Records and astronomical observations
- 01Ancient records and the limits of early history
- 02Writing, monuments, and the antiquity of nations
- 01Ignorance of origins and eternity
- 02Matter, light, and time
- 03Sensation and thought
- 01Human ignorance and suffering
- 02The impious and false images of God
- 01Joan of Arc's alleged miracles and prophecies
- 02Cauchon, the Inquisition, and the trial at Rouen
- 03Execution and later impostors
- 01Kissing in comedy and classical literature
- 02Kissing as greeting, worship, and betrayal
- 03Sacred kisses, Christian agapæ, and social customs
- 01Kissing customs and bodily danger
- 02Limits and origins of language
- 03Beauty, spread, and corruption of languages
- 01Animal governments and human laws
- 01Natural law versus human conventions
- 02Definition of liberty as power
- 03Will, reason, and the liberty of indifference
- 01The value of a great library
- 02The public library of the King of France
- 03Too many books, too little time
- 01Ancient books and early libraries
- 02Limits of the human mind
- 01Local crimes and regional morality
- 01Nature, animals, and human love
- 02The disease that corrupts love
- 03Heloïse, Abelard, and love after loss
- 04Luxury and Roman temperance
- 01Luxury as the fruit of conquest and commerce
- 02Luxury in great and small states
- 03Luxury, excess, and social propriety
- 01General reflection on human life
- 02Man in the Iron Mask
- 01Voltaire's rebuttal of rival identifications
- 02The iron mask as Louis XIV's elder brother
- 03Publisher's note on the twin-brother theory
- 01Marriage as a civic virtue
- 01Ardassan Ougli and the burden of masters
- 02Indian fable of the giant and the hunchback
- 03Origins of laws and government
- 04Men of letters and persecution
- 05Metamorphosis and metempsychosis
- 01Milton and the plagiarism accusation
- 01Defense of Milton against plagiarism charges
- 02Refutation of the charge that Mohammedan religion is sensual
- 01The mountain and the mouse fable
- 01Critique of religious superstitions and naked worship
- 02Natural law as the instinct of justice
- 03Property, theft, and the duties of natural law
- 01Dialogue between the Philosopher and Nature
- 01Nature as art and hidden laws
- 02Limits of human knowledge and first principles
- 01What is necessary to all men
- 02Common notions and religion
- 01Selim's reply on divine permission and crime
- 02New Novelties
- 01Philosopher as lover of wisdom and truth
- 02Confucius and practical moral teaching
- 01Greek and Roman moral philosophers
- 02Persecution of French philosophers
- 03Limits of omnipotence
- 04Critique of dualism and evil principles
- 01Prayers and divine immutability
- 01Critique of ancient philosophers and search for truth
- 02Prime author, eternal emanation, and divine necessity
- 03Ancient Oriental and Greek philosophical basis
- 01Prejudice as opinion without judgment
- 02Necessary prejudices and childhood instruction
- 03Sentiment versus prejudice
- 04Social respect and childhood fables
- 01Prejudices of the senses
- 02Physical prejudices
- 03Historical prejudices
- 01Religious superstitions and persecution
- 02Rarity, beauty, and admiration
- 01Nature's pleasures versus artistic masterpieces
- 02Law's system and the man who was always right
- 01Religious polemics against pope, doge, and mufti
- 02Natural religion and universal moral duty
- 03Vision of religious violence and plunder
- 04Sages of antiquity and moral exemplars
- 05Jesus on true religion and hypocrisy
- 01Universal religion of God and justice
- 02Critique of sectarian fanaticism and obscurity
- 01Self-esteem as natural vanity
- 02The soul as an unknown principle
- 01Limits of human knowledge about soul and matter
- 02Historical notions of the soul in philosophy and religion
- 03Church authority and the immaterial soul
- 01Locke on matter and thought
- 02Gassendi and Descartes on the soul
- 01Material soul and divine preservation
- 02Animals, instinct, and the soul
- 03Limits of knowing the soul
- 01Human ignorance of the soul
- 01Limits of human knowledge about mind and matter
- 02Warburton's paradox on the immortality of the soul
- 01Warburton’s syllogisms and criticism
- 02New Testament revelation of immortality
- 01Immortality of the soul and Roman skepticism
- 02Deformed children, monsters, and the soul
- 03Questions about souls in monstrous births
- 01States and governments
- 01Climate, laws, and the best state
- 02Superstition
- 01The nature and purpose of tears
- 02Feigning tears and theatrical pity
- 01Theist's belief in God and worship
- 02Tolerance as a law of nature
- 03Religious persecution and sectarian conflict
- 01Pilate and the meaning of truth
- 02Tyranny of one man and many
- 01Virtue as doing good
- 02Cardinal and divine virtues
- 01Virtue as beneficence toward others
- 02Cardinal and divine virtues
- 03Recluses, saints, and social usefulness
- 01Moral objections and exemplary rogues
- 02The repeated question of human evil
- 01Declaration of the admirers, questioners and doubters
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