Cultivating Your Own Garden

Cultivating Your Own Garden

In Voltaire’s work, Candide, one of the major themes found during the reading is Candide’s journey to thinking original thoughts for himself. The reader is taken on a journey throughout the main character, Candide’s, life and ventures through the highs and lows of Candide’s life. Throughout Candide’s physical journey, there is another journey happening, but on a deeper level, ergo taking place on a philosophical realm. Following this journey the reader will watch Candide evolve from unreflectively assuming, to doubting other’s thoughts, into his final remark where he states “but we must cultivate our own garden.” (Voltaire 96). During this essay the three stages previously stated will be discussed to identify any similarities between Candide “cultivating his own garden” (Voltaire 96) and Descartes’ thoughts on how to be more objective in one’s thoughts. 

In the beginning of the story Candide is presented as an unreflective thinker. The reader is introduced to Pangloss, Candide’s teacher,  and directly after his introduction Voltaire states, “Candide listened to his lessons with all the candor of his age and character. (1.2).  Pangloss begins to explain his philosophy on life and makes the statement, “there is no effect without a cause” (Voltaire 2) and it is said, “Candide listened attentively and believed innocently” (Voltaire 2). Passages such as those previously shown, are examples of Candide’s naivete and unreflectiveness in his forming thoughts. Candide does not form his own opinions, but instead he innocently believes what Pangloss teaches and believes it to be an absolute truth that he does not doubt. The nature of thought described here is very similar to the type of thought Descartes accuses many humans of possessing. Wherein one hears a teacher speak about a topic and believes this statement without further investigation on said topic. This nature of thought where one is unreflective is described by Descartes as being comparable to having a building and not checking this building for a sturdy foundation or attempting to find weak spots before putting the building to use, therefore trusting the security of the building. 

Next, Voltaire begins to write about Candide and present him as initiating the beginning stages of being contemplative, by not immediately believing every word Pangloss spoke. Candide displayed doubt, which is a step in the process of obtaining original thoughts. Candide’s gradual refashioning of his thought process,  into creating and investigating thoughts for himself can be seen in passages such as, “this does it, at last I shall have to renounce your optimism.” (Voltaire 51) and then when asked what it was he responded with, “it is the mania of maintaining that all is well when we are miserable!” (Voltaire 51). These two statements from Candide signify a change within Candide’s mind, where he is beginning to be confronted with the weak spots in Pangloss’s argument. During the story Candide is faced with tragedy after tragedy and he begins to think of how realistic or how applicable Pangloss’ statements are and truly begins to reflect on whether he agrees with these statements. This nature of thought is similar to Descartes’ ideas on forming original thoughts, for example Candide doubting Pangloss’s statements are naturally similar to having a building and checking the structure and the foundation of the building. Descartes suggests that a person should never take another’s thoughts or statements for fact until they have thoroughly investigated this topic and come to a solid conclusion for themselves. 

Finally, Candide is presented as most likely deciding to pursue knowledge and original thoughts. Near the end of Voltaire’s Candide, the reader finds many of the characters talking amongst themselves and when discussing Candide’s journey, Pangloss makes the remark, “All events are linked together in the best of all possible worlds” (Voltaire 96) and then briefly recalls their entire journey, finding a way to explain that every acted as a positive catalyst for the next event. Candide responds with the final phrase of the book and states, “That is all well said,” replied Candide, “but we must cultivate our garden.” (Voltaire 96) this previously stated remark, is one that contains various interpretations from many people, one interpretation is that Candide is implying he will now think for himself and will create original thoughts. In my opinion Candide is implying that we each decide what actions to take and what thoughts to think. This conclusion, aligns with Descartes’ Method on forming original thoughts. In Descartes’ work,  A Discourse on the Method, he explains that a person should thoroughly investigate facts and opinions that they are told, and Candide’s final statement in Voltaire’s Candide, leads the reader to believe that he now plans to do this. 

In conclusion, Voltaire wrote an intriguing work that causes the reader to relate to Candide and reflect on their own lives and decide if they have been believing others’ opinions and thoughts or if they have been having original thoughts that they investigated and decided on themselves. Many people can relate to Candide in the beginning of the story, as it is very easy to assume or innocently believe, without pursuing any further reason or information. But Voltaire demonstrates to the reader why this nature of thought is not preferable to pursuing knowledge and understanding the reason behind why he/she believes this. While I don’t believe Candide truly followed step for step of Descartes’ Method, I think he did follow a type of Cartesian Method wherein he came to form original thoughts for himself. 

Works Cited

Descartes René, and Ian Maclean. A Discourse on the Method. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Voltaire, et al. Candide Zadig and Selected Stories. Signet Classics, 2009.