Voltaire and his Candide

Greetings to those who pass by here, haven't made a post in a while. I will be going back to making written posts until I am able to purchase a good video camera with which to make videos.
So, to kick off my long absence from sharing my reading adventures I start with Voltaire's Candide.
Recently, I have been getting more and more into philosophy and finding myself gravitating towards philosophical works, I'm halfway through Descartes's Metaphysical Mediations, which is considered the breakthrough in modern philosophy, and I'm highly enjoying it. Among other books, I ordered and received from bookmooch Voltaire's Candide which came with a few other stories as well. I haven't yet read the other stories but I did read Candide. Superficially, it is entertaining and full of adventure. The substance, as I'm sure many know, lies in the characters, their words and actions. Candide is the ultimate optimist trained philosophically by the philosopher Pangloss. Quickly in the story he finds himself thrown out of his comfort and henceforth encounters bizarre situation after bizarre situation. His foolishness leads him to willingly trust people yet his trust is continually broken and spurned, and the consequences are frequently unfavorable. Yet he remains undaunted. On a side note, I found it thought-provoking that there were numerous times when Candide would expound his virtuous hopefulness and "love" of mankind but he would follow that with an action that contradicted his philosophy of life. For example, when he followed his instincts and killed the characters he did, not many. It hinted at the weight of human nature, which is another theme that is touched upon in this story, what is evil?
In Candide, Voltaire was pushing against philosophical optimism and the "idealist" mentality of philosophizing as a "static" pastime. (I use the words idealist and static loosely). To Voltaire, philosophy involved the mind as much as the actions, and even though metaphysical ponderings are interesting the substance of life is found in our actions, hence the ending phrase that is emphasized, "cultivate your garden". It is interesting to compare Descartes and his meditations which stands on the other spectrum, where philosophy is an enterprise that should concern itself with the intangible, with the essence of "things". To keep it short and sweet, I highly recommend this Candide to those that haven't read it, to those that have and it has been a while, another perusal wouldn't hurt. It's a good story with substantial substance.
Until next week.