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Tom Gilbert

Tom Gilbert on Chapter 1:
February 28, 2010 at 12:58 pm

The logical development of many of these practices is sensible when dealing with early desert tribes.

Food poisoning is not a new phenomina and it is amazing how, even with our modern understanding of how bacteria spreads it is still a frequent phenomina.

In an age with no germ theory cultures still worked out codified rules to prevent transferal of some types of bacteria. And in a hot climate it is easy to see why shellfish could be dangerous. In their own way religious restrictions on food may have “evolved” in literally system of natural selection.

- Tom Gilbert (ginandconflict.blogspot.com)

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Tom Gilbert on Chapter 1:
February 28, 2010 at 12:51 pm

This is tied perfectly into the historical evidence of diet and exercise right up until the 20th century.

With only the wealthy able to afford meat with regularity, and the food we would consider “healthy” today being very much classified as “peasant food” the rich were the only ones who would be overweight.

Corpulence is often, therefore, tied to opulence.

- Tom Gilbert (ginandconflict.blogspot.com)

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Tom Gilbert on Chapter 1:
February 21, 2010 at 4:36 pm

This description of the Baron is a great example of Voltaire’s use of paragraph structure to cement irony. His opening sentence, rather than introducing the facts contained within the paragraph, is completely at odds with the facts presented. The Baron is clearly to poor for a proper pack of hounds, to poor to employ huntsmen or even his own chaplain.
The evidence undermines the proposition.

- Tom Gilbert (ginandconflict.blogspot.com)

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Tom Gilbert on Chapter 1:
February 21, 2010 at 4:27 pm

I believe Voltaire’s attacks’s on Leibniz are never more cutting than in this depiction of Pangloss. The clarity of this attack on Liebniz’ principle of “sufficient reason” – that all things must have a purpose because they exist – in the middle of the enlightenment project centred on the concept of cause=effect perfectly shows Voltaire’s contempt.

- Tom Gilbert (ginandconflict.blogspot.com)

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Tom Gilbert on Chapter 2:
February 21, 2010 at 4:12 pm

This is a very interesting point Alice, I had not considered the introduction of the [i]Ancien Regime[/i] metric system when I first read this and believed the joke to be that Candide was almost exactly the average height for men joining the army in his part of Europe. (http://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/572/1/european_heights_in_the_early_18th_century.pdf) This would increase the sense that the ‘knowing’ soldiers were taking advantage of the naieve Candide. Of course assigning to Candide a height far above that of the norm makes him a far more interesting character in many situations. Far from an “everyman hero” and reflection of the average man; he is instead a physically gifted character and thus his continued survival cannot be ascribed to the good of the world and is instead due to the brutal truth of physical superiority over the weak.

- Tom Gilbert (ginandconflict.blogspot.com)

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