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Critical thinking in a Nutshell., 16. LITERATURE – Voltaire. Part 2/2.

16. LITERATURE – Voltaire. Part 2/2.

You might think this sounds like a bit of a confidence trick – Voltaire certainly did – but this idea did find widespread acceptance in the eighteenth century.

Candide's great mission was to put this philosophy to the test. Ejected from his comfortable home in an obscure German castle after trying to seduce the Baron's beautiful daughter Cunégonde, Voltaire's hero Candide undergoes many trials and tribulations: conscripted into the army, he fights in a war, then deserts, only to find himself a witness to an earthquake in Lisbon [– a reference to a recent event in which some 40,000 people had perished]. Candide is repeatedly brought face to face with evil in its most extreme forms – moral evil, in the case of the earthquake, where man is not apparently to blame; and most of all human evil, such as the war, where man is very definitely to blame. Pangloss's breezy Optimism is clearly an inadequate response to enormities of evil on this scale. Eventually, even Candide comes to realise this. To quote from the book:

"And sometimes Pangloss would say to Candide: ‘All events form a chain in the best of all possible worlds. For in the end, if you had not been given a good kick up the backside and chased out of a beautiful castle for loving Miss Cunégonde, and if you hadn't been subjected to the Inquisition, and if you hadn't wandered about America on foot, and if you hadn't dealt the Baron a good blow with your sword, and if you hadn't lost all your sheep from that fine country of El Dorado, you wouldn't be here now eating candied citron and pistachio nuts. ' ‘That is well put,' replied Candide, ‘but we must cultivate our garden. ' " After 1760, Voltaire took up residence in the château at Ferney, just outside Geneva.

By now he was the most famous living writer in Europe, and he became widely known as the ‘patriarch of Ferney'. He took up a number of public causes. In 1761, a Protestant merchant Jean Calas was accused of murdering his son and sentenced by the judges of Toulouse to be tortured and then broken on the wheel. The legal processes were - to say the least - irregular, and the suspicion grew that the judges in this Catholic city had acted with excessive zeal out of religious bigotry. Voltaire became involved in the case, and mounted an energetic campaign to rehabilitate Calas' memory and to help the members of his family, who had been left destitute. He wrote letters to those in authority and published a stream of pamphlets, culminating in 1763 in his "Traité sur la tolérance" (‘Treatise on Toleration'), which begins with the historical facts of the Calas case and broadens out into a history of religious intolerance in European culture. Voltaire's writings had enormous impact on public opinion, and eventually the judges in Paris quashed the judgment of the Toulouse court. Too late to save Calas, but a huge victory for Voltaire, who had learned an important lesson about how change could be brought about through the pressure of public opinion. ‘Opinion rules the world,' he wrote in 1764, ‘but in the long run it is the philosophers who shape this opinion. ' Voltaire said of himself that he ‘wrote to act', and he wanted his writings to change the way people thought and behaved. In leading his crusades against fanaticism, he even invented a campaign slogan, "Écrasez l'Infâme! ", which translates roughly as ‘Crush the despicable! '. "L'Infâme" stands here for everything that Voltaire hates, everything that he had spent his life fighting: superstition, intolerance, irrational behaviour of every kind. And we should never forget that he was a brilliant writer, one of the greatest stylist the French language has ever known.

The power of his ideas had a lot to do with the power of his expression: many writers made fun of miracles, no one did it so hilariously as Voltaire. Always, Voltaire has an ear for the telling phrase: ‘If God had not existed, it would have been necessary to invent him' – it's a good line, even in English, and better still in the original French, where it is more memorable because it is a classical alexandrine line in 12 syllables: "Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer. Voltaire's legacy in our present debates about religious toleration remains potent. Hardly a week passes without an article in the press quoting ‘I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.' This rallying cry of tolerant multiculturalism is so potent, that if Voltaire hadn't said it, we would have had to invent it. Which is what happened – the expression was invented, by an Englishwoman in 1906. No matter – it expresses a truth which is fundamentally important to our culture, so we have adopted the phrase and decided that Voltaire said it. Voltaire's name has become synonymous with a set of liberal values: freedom of speech, rejection of bigotry and superstition, belief in reason and tolerance. It is a unique, and nowadays extremely precious legacy.

[Written by Professor Nicholas Cronk.

Director of the Voltaire Foundation]

16. LITERATURE – Voltaire. Part 2/2. 16. LITERATUR - Voltaire. Teil 2/2. 16. ΛΟΓΟΤΕΧΝΙΑ - Βολταίρος. Μέρος 2/2. 16. LITERATURA - Voltaire. Parte 2/2. 16. LITTERATURE - Voltaire. Partie 2/2. 16. LETTERATURA - Voltaire. Parte 2/2. 16.文学 - ヴォルテールパート2/2. 16. 문학 - 볼테르. 파트 2/2. 16. LITERATŪRA - Volteras. 2/2 dalis. 16. LITERATURA - Wolter. Część 2/2. 16. LITERATURA - Voltaire. Parte 2/2. 16. ЛИТЕРАТУРА - Вольтер. Часть 2/2. 16. EDEBİYAT - Voltaire. Bölüm 2/2. 16. ЛІТЕРАТУРА - Вольтер. Частина 2/2. 16\. 文学——伏尔泰。第 2/2 部分。 16\. 文學——伏爾泰。第 2/2 部分。

You might think this sounds like a bit of a confidence trick – Voltaire certainly did – but this idea did find widespread acceptance in the eighteenth century. |||||||||||||||||||||Anerkennung|||| Man könnte meinen, dass es sich hierbei um einen Hochstaplertrick handelt - Voltaire tat es jedenfalls -, aber diese Idee fand im achtzehnten Jahrhundert breite Zustimmung. Vous pouvez penser qu'il s'agit d'un tour de passe-passe - Voltaire l'a certainement fait - mais cette idée a été largement acceptée au dix-huitième siècle.

Candide's great mission was to put this philosophy to the test. Die große Aufgabe von Candide war es, diese Philosophie auf die Probe zu stellen. La grande mission de Candide était de mettre cette philosophie à l'épreuve. 卡仕丁的伟大使命是将这种哲学付诸实践。 Ejected from his comfortable home in an obscure German castle after trying to seduce the Baron's beautiful daughter Cunégonde, Voltaire's hero Candide undergoes many trials and tribulations: conscripted into the army, he fights in a war, then deserts, only to find himself a witness to an earthquake in Lisbon [– a reference to a recent event in which some 40,000 people had perished]. |||||||||||||verführen||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||Zeuge|||||||||||||||||ums Leben gekommen |||||||hidden||||||charm entice woo|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||died lost lives Der Held Candide wird aus seinem komfortablen Zuhause in einem obskuren deutschen Schloss vertrieben, nachdem er versucht hat, die schöne Tochter des Barons, Cunégonde, zu verführen. Er wird zur Armee eingezogen, kämpft in einem Krieg, desertiert dann und wird schließlich Zeuge eines Erdbebens in Lissabon [- eine Anspielung auf ein Ereignis, bei dem vor kurzem etwa 40 000 Menschen ums Leben kamen]. Chassé de sa confortable demeure dans un obscur château allemand après avoir tenté de séduire la belle fille du baron, Cunégonde, le héros de Voltaire, Candide, subit de nombreuses épreuves : enrôlé dans l'armée, il fait la guerre, puis déserte, pour se retrouver témoin d'un tremblement de terre à Lisbonne [référence à un événement récent qui a fait quelque 40 000 victimes]. Expulso da sua confortável casa num obscuro castelo alemão, depois de ter tentado seduzir a bela filha do barão, Cunégonde, o herói de Voltaire, Cândido, passa por muitas provações: recrutado para o exército, combate numa guerra, depois deserta, para se tornar testemunha de um terramoto em Lisboa [- uma referência a um acontecimento recente em que morreram cerca de 40 000 pessoas]. 离开舒适的家乡——一个普通的德国城堡,卡萨诱惑了男爵的美丽女儿康涅贡德,他的主人——伏尔泰的英雄卡仕丁经历了许多艰难困苦:被征召入伍,参加战争,然后叛逃,最后目睹里斯本的地震【这是对最近发生的一场地震的提及,导致约4万人丧生】。 Candide is repeatedly brought face to face with evil in its most extreme forms – moral evil, in the case of the earthquake, where man is not apparently to blame; and most of all human evil, such as the war, where man is very definitely to blame. ||wiederholt||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| optimism challenged||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Candide wird immer wieder mit dem Bösen in seinen extremsten Formen konfrontiert - mit dem moralischen Bösen, wie im Fall des Erdbebens, an dem der Mensch nicht schuld zu sein scheint, und vor allem mit dem menschlichen Bösen, wie im Fall des Krieges, an dem der Mensch ganz eindeutig schuld ist. Candide est confronté à plusieurs reprises au mal dans ses formes les plus extrêmes - le mal moral, dans le cas du tremblement de terre, où l'homme n'est apparemment pas à blâmer, et surtout le mal humain, comme la guerre, où l'homme est très clairement à blâmer. 在不同的情景中,卡仕丁反复面对着恶这最为极端的表现形式——道德恶,如地震一事,人似乎并不应为其负责;以及人类恶,例如战争,人显然应为此负责。 Pangloss's breezy Optimism is clearly an inadequate response to enormities of evil on this scale. 潘戈洛斯的|轻松的||||||||罪恶||||| |unbeschwerte|||||unangemessen|||Gräueltaten||||| Pangloss' unbeschwerter Optimismus ist eindeutig eine unzureichende Antwort auf Ungeheuerlichkeiten des Bösen in diesem Ausmaß. L'optimisme insouciant de Pangloss est manifestement une réponse inadéquate face à l'énormité du mal à cette échelle. 彭格洛斯的乐观是对这种邪恶巨大规模的不足反应。 Eventually, even Candide comes to realise this. Schließlich kommt sogar Candide zu dieser Erkenntnis. 最终,甚至坎迪德也意识到这一点。 To quote from the book: Um aus dem Buch zu zitieren: Pour citer le livre : 引用书中的话:

"And sometimes Pangloss would say to Candide: ‘All events form a chain in the best of all possible worlds. "Und manchmal sagte Pangloss zu Candide: 'In der besten aller möglichen Welten bilden alle Ereignisse eine Kette. Et parfois, Pangloss disait à Candide : "Tous les événements forment une chaîne dans le meilleur des mondes possibles. For in the end, if you had not been given a good kick up the backside and chased out of a beautiful castle for loving Miss Cunégonde, and if you hadn't been subjected to the Inquisition, and if you hadn't wandered about America on foot, and if you hadn't dealt the Baron a good blow with your sword, and if you hadn't lost all your sheep from that fine country of El Dorado, you wouldn't be here now eating candied citron and pistachio nuts. ' |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||糖渍|||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||ausgeteilt|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Denn hättest du nicht einen ordentlichen Tritt in den Hintern bekommen und wärst nicht aus einem schönen Schloss gejagt worden, weil du Fräulein Cunégonde geliebt hast, und wärst du nicht der Inquisition ausgesetzt gewesen, und wärst du nicht zu Fuß durch Amerika gewandert, und hättest du dem Baron nicht einen ordentlichen Schlag mit deinem Schwert versetzt, und hättest du nicht all deine Schafe aus dem schönen Land El Dorado verloren, würdest du jetzt nicht hier sein und kandierte Zitronen und Pistazien essen. ' Car enfin, si vous n'aviez pas reçu un bon coup de pied au derrière et n'aviez pas été chassé d'un beau château pour avoir aimé Mlle Cunégonde, si vous n'aviez pas été soumis à l'Inquisition, si vous n'aviez pas parcouru l'Amérique à pied, si vous n'aviez pas donné un bon coup d'épée au Baron, et si vous n'aviez pas perdu tous vos moutons de ce beau pays de l'Eldorado, vous ne seriez pas ici en train de manger des cédrats confits et des pistaches. ' ‘That is well put,' replied Candide, ‘but we must cultivate our garden. Das ist gut gesagt", antwortete Candide, "aber wir müssen unseren Garten pflegen. C'est bien dit, répondit Candide, mais il faut cultiver son jardin. ‘这说得好,' 康迪德回答道,‘但我们必须耕种我们的花园。 ' " ' " ' " After 1760, Voltaire took up residence in the château at Ferney, just outside Geneva. ||||Wohnsitz|||||||| Nach 1760 ließ sich Voltaire im Schloss von Ferney, in der Nähe von Genf, nieder. Après 1760, Voltaire s'installe au château de Ferney, aux portes de Genève. 1760年后,伏尔泰在离日内瓦市边缘不远的费尔内城堡定居。

By now he was the most famous living writer in Europe, and he became widely known as the ‘patriarch of Ferney'. He took up a number of public causes. |||||||Anliegen Er engagierte sich in verschiedenen Bereichen des öffentlichen Lebens. Il s'est engagé dans un certain nombre de causes publiques. Dedicou-se a várias causas públicas. 他支持了许多公共事业。 In 1761, a Protestant merchant Jean Calas was accused of murdering his son and sentenced by the judges of Toulouse to be tortured and then broken on the wheel. Im Jahr 1761 wurde der protestantische Kaufmann Jean Calas des Mordes an seinem Sohn angeklagt und von den Richtern in Toulouse dazu verurteilt, gefoltert und anschließend am Rad zerbrochen zu werden. In 1761, a Protestant merchant Jean Calas was accused of murdering his son and sentenced by the judges of Toulouse to be tortured and then broken on the wheel. 1761年,一个新教商人让·卡拉被指控谋杀他的儿子,并被图卢兹的法官判处受到酷刑,然后被处以车轮挟断的刑罚。 The legal processes were - to say the least - irregular, and the suspicion grew that the judges in this Catholic city had acted with excessive zeal out of religious bigotry. ||||||||unregelmäßig||||||||||||||||Übereifer||||religiösem Fanatismus ||||||||||||||||||||||||enthusiasm||||intolerance Die Gerichtsverfahren waren - gelinde gesagt - unregelmäßig, und es kam der Verdacht auf, dass die Richter in dieser katholischen Stadt aus religiöser Bigotterie heraus mit übermäßigem Eifer handelten. Les procédures judiciaires étaient pour le moins irrégulières et le soupçon s'est répandu que les juges de cette ville catholique avaient agi avec un zèle excessif par sectarisme religieux. 法律程序是——充其量说——不规范的,人们怀疑这个天主教城市的法官过分热衷于出于宗教偏见的原因采取了行动。 Voltaire became involved in the case, and mounted an energetic campaign to rehabilitate Calas' memory and to help the members of his family, who had been left destitute. |||||||||||||||||||||||||||mittellos Voltaire s'implique dans l'affaire et mène une campagne énergique pour réhabiliter la mémoire de Calas et aider les membres de sa famille, laissés dans l'indigence. He wrote letters to those in authority and published a stream of pamphlets, culminating in 1763 in his "Traité sur la tolérance" (‘Treatise on Toleration'), which begins with the historical facts of the Calas case and broadens out into a history of religious intolerance in European culture. |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||扩展|||||||||| |||||||||||||gipfelnd||||||||||||||||||||||erweitert sich|||||||||| Il écrit des lettres aux autorités et publie une série de pamphlets, qui aboutissent en 1763 à son "Traité sur la tolérance", qui commence par les faits historiques de l'affaire Calas et s'étend à l'histoire de l'intolérance religieuse dans la culture européenne. Voltaire's writings had enormous impact on public opinion, and eventually the judges in Paris quashed the judgment of the Toulouse court. ||||||||||||||aufgehoben|||||| ||||||||||||||overturned|||||| Les écrits de Voltaire ont eu un impact énorme sur l'opinion publique et les juges de Paris ont finalement annulé le jugement du tribunal de Toulouse. Too late to save Calas, but a huge victory for Voltaire, who had learned an important lesson about how change could be brought about through the pressure of public opinion. Il est trop tard pour sauver Calas, mais c'est une grande victoire pour Voltaire, qui a appris une leçon importante sur la manière dont le changement peut être obtenu grâce à la pression de l'opinion publique. ‘Opinion rules the world,' he wrote in 1764, ‘but in the long run it is the philosophers who shape this opinion. ' L'opinion gouverne le monde", écrivait-il en 1764, "mais à long terme, ce sont les philosophes qui façonnent cette opinion". ' “‘观点统治世界,'他在1764年写道,‘但从长远看,塑造这一观点的是哲学家。' Voltaire said of himself that he ‘wrote to act', and he wanted his writings to change the way people thought and behaved. Voltaire disait de lui-même qu'il "écrivait pour agir" et qu'il voulait que ses écrits changent la façon dont les gens pensaient et se comportaient. 伏尔泰自称他“写作是为了行动”,并且他希望他的著作可以改变人们的思维和行为。 In leading his crusades against fanaticism, he even invented a campaign slogan, "Écrasez l'Infâme! En menant ses croisades contre le fanatisme, il a même inventé un slogan de campagne, "Écrasez l'Infâme ! 在领导对狂热主义的斗争中,他甚至发明了一句竞选口号,“Écrasez l'Infâme! ", which translates roughly as ‘Crush the despicable! ||grob gesagt||||verachtenswert ||||Crush||the contemptible ", was in etwa bedeutet: "Vernichtet die Verachtungswürdigen! qui se traduit à peu près par "Écrasez l'ignoble ! '. "L'Infâme" stands here for everything that Voltaire hates, everything that he had spent his life fighting: superstition, intolerance, irrational behaviour of every kind. |||||||||||||||||||irrationales Verhalten||| ||||||||||||||||superstition|||||| "L'Infâme" steht hier für alles, was Voltaire hasst, was er sein Leben lang bekämpft hat: Aberglaube, Intoleranz, irrationales Verhalten jeder Art. And we should never forget that he was a brilliant writer, one of the greatest stylist the French language has ever known. |||||||||||||||文体家||||||

The power of his ideas had a lot to do with the power of his expression: many writers made fun of miracles, no one did it so hilariously as Voltaire. |||||||||||||||||||||||||||urkomisch|| La force de ses idées a beaucoup à voir avec la force de son expression : de nombreux écrivains se sont moqués des miracles, mais personne ne l'a fait de manière aussi désopilante que Voltaire. 他的观点之所以有力量,很大程度上归功于他的表达力:许多作家都拿奇迹开玩笑,但没有人像伏尔泰一样滑稽。 Always, Voltaire has an ear for the telling phrase: ‘If God had not existed, it would have been necessary to invent him' – it's a good line, even in English, and better still in the original French, where it is more memorable because it is a classical alexandrine line in 12 syllables: ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||亚历山大诗||| ||||||||||||||||||notwendig||||||||||||||||||||||einprägsamer||||||||| ||||||||||||||||||||create||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Voltaire hat immer ein Ohr für den treffenden Satz: "Wenn es Gott nicht gäbe, müsste man ihn erfinden" - das ist ein guter Satz, sogar im Englischen, und noch besser im französischen Original, wo er noch einprägsamer ist, weil er ein klassischer alexandrinischer Satz in 12 Silben ist: Voltaire a toujours l'oreille pour la phrase révélatrice : "Si Dieu n'avait pas existé, il aurait fallu l'inventer" - c'est une bonne phrase, même en anglais, et encore mieux dans l'original français, où elle est plus mémorable parce que c'est un alexandrin classique en 12 syllabes : Voltaire tem sempre um ouvido para a frase reveladora: "Se Deus não tivesse existido, teria sido necessário inventá-lo" - é um bom verso, mesmo em inglês, e melhor ainda no original francês, onde é mais memorável por ser um verso alexandrino clássico em 12 sílabas: 伏尔泰总是能听出引人注目的短语:“如果上帝不存在,就必须发明他”,即使用英语表达,这也是个好句子,在原始的法语中更为出色,因为它是一个12个音节的古典亚历山大诗行: "Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer. "Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer. Voltaire's legacy in our present debates about religious toleration remains potent. ||||||||||kraftvoll L'héritage de Voltaire dans nos débats actuels sur la tolérance religieuse reste puissant. Hardly a week passes without an article in the press quoting ‘I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.' 几乎不|||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||||||||||||missbillige|||||||||||||||| Es vergeht kaum eine Woche, in der nicht ein Artikel in der Presse erscheint, in dem es heißt: "Ich missbillige, was Sie sagen, aber ich werde Ihr Recht, es zu sagen, bis in den Tod verteidigen". Il ne se passe pas une semaine sans qu'un article de presse ne dise : "Je désapprouve ce que vous dites, mais je défendrai jusqu'à la mort votre droit de le dire". Dificilmente passa uma semana sem que surja na imprensa um artigo que diga: "Não concordo com o que dizes, mas defenderei até à morte o teu direito de o dizer". 几乎每周都会有一篇报纸文章引用这样的话语:“我不同意你的言论,但我将誓死捍卫你说话的权利。” This rallying cry of tolerant multiculturalism is so potent, that if Voltaire hadn't said it, we would have had to invent it. |||||多元文化主义|||||||||||||||| Diese Parole des toleranten Multikulturalismus ist so stark, dass wir sie hätten erfinden müssen, wenn Voltaire sie nicht gesagt hätte. Este grito de guerra do multiculturalismo tolerante é tão potente que, se Voltaire não o tivesse dito, teríamos de o inventar. 这种宽容的多元文化主义的口号如此强大,以至于即使伏尔泰没有说过这句话,我们也必须自己发明它。 Which is what happened – the expression was invented, by an Englishwoman in 1906. 事情就是这样的——这个表达方式是由一位英国妇女于 1906 年发明的。 No matter – it expresses a truth which is fundamentally important to our culture, so we have adopted the phrase and decided that Voltaire said it. |||drückt aus||||||||||||||||||||| Egal - er drückt eine Wahrheit aus, die für unsere Kultur von grundlegender Bedeutung ist, also haben wir den Satz übernommen und beschlossen, dass Voltaire ihn gesagt hat. 无论如何 - 它表达了对我们文化至关重要的真理,因此我们采纳了这句话,并决定说是伏尔泰说的。 Voltaire's name has become synonymous with a set of liberal values: freedom of speech, rejection of bigotry and superstition, belief in reason and tolerance. 伏尔泰的名字已经成为自由言论、拒绝偏见和迷信、相信理性和宽容的一套自由价值的代名词。 It is a unique, and nowadays extremely precious legacy. |||||heutzutage||| 这是一个独特的,而且现在极为宝贵的遗产。

[Written by Professor Nicholas Cronk.

Director of the Voltaire Foundation] Directeur de la Fondation Voltaire]