Peyton’s The Name, Bloggin’s The Game

Candide’s Contrasting Conceptions Most everyone has heard of the difference between an optimist and a pessimist in regards to a drink; one views the glass as half full and the other views the glass as half empty. Add to this mix the realist, who would just as soon drink the water from the glass, and you have three of the world’s most prominent ideologies expressed in simplistic terms. What would happen, however, if these three ideologies were not contained to this acceptable conception, but, instead, were put on steroids and used to totally discount all other worldviews? This is precisely the case with three of the main characters in Voltaire’s Candide : Pangloss, Martin, and Candide. Pangloss represents unceasing and seemingly irrational optimism bordering on determinism, Martin embodies a relentless gravitational pessimism, and Candide, though less dogmatic with his own beliefs and willing to consider others, possesses an underlying philosophy of practicality that can be occasio...

Is Reason Always Right?     One of the most irritating things for a child to hear is the phrase, “You’ll understand when you’re older.” Humans have a natural desire to learn and understand the universe around them, as well as their place in it. Some of the most pressing questions that plague every individual are the large questions of life such as, “Who am I?”, “Why am I here?”, and “Is there purpose?”. People have sought answers to questions like these ever since they could think, and the ways in which they have sought them are as varied as the people who have done the seeking. In René Descartes’ A Discourse on the Method , one such person becomes disillusioned with the ways others have searched into truth and yearns to satisfy his own desire for understanding. Led by this desire, Descartes devises his own method that attempts to be incontrovertible in seeking the answers to the questions of existence, and ends up creating one that, though useful and revolutionary,...