AccScience Publishing / BIJP / Volume 9 / Issue 1 / DOI: 10.18491/beytulhikme.1470
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BOOK REVIEW

Poem on the Lisbon Disaster 

Metin Topuz1 Ahmet Selim Tümkaya2
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1 Mersin Üniversitesi, Fen Edebiyat Fakültesi, Felsefe Bölümü 33343, Mersin , Turkey
2 Çağ Üniversitesi, Hazırlık Okulu, İngilizce Hazırlık 33800, Mersin , Turkey
BIJP 2019, 9(1), 279–291; https://doi.org/10.18491/beytulhikme.1470
Received: 28 January 2019 | Published online: 28 March 2019
© 2019 by the Authors. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC-by the license) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
Abstract

The poem called Poéme sur le désastre de Lisbonne, written by Voltaire in 1755 and published in 1756 deals with the Lisbon earthquake that took place in 1755. This earthquake had a profound impact on the European thinkers of that age. Voltaire, Rousseau, Kant and important theologians of that age have put forward ideas about the possible causes of the earthquake. Philosophers such as Voltaire –and Kant– opposed this idea in the face of the theologians who saw the earthquake as a righteous punishment for the sins of mankind. Voltaire criticizes the understanding of theodicy in this poem written right after the earthquake. However, Voltaire fires his arrows of criticism, especially to Leibniz and Pope’s theological-optimistic viewpoints. In this context, he criticizes the idea of ‘All is well’ or ‘everything that is connected with goodness in God’s great plan’.

Keywords
Voltaire
Leibniz
evil
theodicy
Lisbon disaster.
References
  1. Voltaire (1877). Poéme sur le Désastre de Lisbonne. Œuvres Complètes de Voltaire, tome 9. (Ed. L. Moland). Paris: Garnier Frères, 470-478.
  2. Voltaire (1901). The Lisbon Earthquake and Other Poems. The Works of Voltaire: A Contemporary Version, vol X, part 2. (Trans. W. F. Fleming). New York: E. R. Du Mont, 8-18.
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Beytulhikme An International Journal of Philosophy, Print ISSN: 1303-8303, Published by AccScience Publishing