Which 18th-century French philosopher and satirist wrote the 1759 novella 'Candide', which vigorously mocked the philosophical optimism of Gottfried Leibniz through the character Dr. Pangloss?

Answer and explanation

Correct answer: A. Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet)

  1. Step 1: Written in the immediate aftermath of the catastrophic 1755 Lisbon earthquake and the Seven Years' War, this satirical picaresque attacked dogmatic philosophical rationalism.
  2. Step 2: Voltaire subjected young Candide and his tutor Dr. Pangloss (who maintained that "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds") to endless global catastrophes before concluding that "we must cultivate our garden."
Answer
Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet)
Why not the others: 'Jean-Jacques Rousseau' Rousseau wrote the philosophical works 'The Social Contract' and 'Émile', as well as the autobiographical 'Confessions'; 'Denis Diderot' Diderot was the chief co-founder and editor of the groundbreaking 28-volume 'Encyclopédie' of the French Enlightenment; 'Baron de Montesquieu' Montesquieu was an Enlightenment political thinker who formulated the separation of powers in 'The Spirit of the Laws' (1748).

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