Poem on the Lisbon Disaster

Abstract

The poem called Poéme sur le désastre de Lisbonne, written by Vol-taire 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. Philoso-phers such as Voltaire –and Kant– opposed this idea in the face of the theolo-gians who saw the earthquake as a righteous punishment for the sins of man-kind. Voltaire criticizes the understanding of theodicy in this poem written right after the earthquake. However, Voltaire fires his arrows of criticism, es-pecially to Leibniz and Pope’s theological-optimistic viewpoints. In this con-text, he criticizes the idea of ‘All is well’ or ‘everything that is connected with goodness in God’s great plan’.