In ''Candide'' (1759), his chief work, Voltaire criticized a popular philosophical theory of [[Leibniz]] which described the world as being in its best possible state because it was in [[God]]'s hands. To illustrate this point, he follows the story of Candide as increasingly terrible things happen to him until he loses his optimistic view of the world and his [[Christianity|faith]]. | In ''Candide'' (1759), his chief work, Voltaire criticized a popular philosophical theory of [[Leibniz]] which described the world as being in its best possible state because it was in [[God]]'s hands. To illustrate this point, he follows the story of Candide as increasingly terrible things happen to him until he loses his optimistic view of the world and his [[Christianity|faith]]. |