Le séisme de Lisbonne et sa vision philosophique entre Voltaire et Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The consequences of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake altered the perception of natural disasters as physical evils, once again raising the question of their origin. This question, which falls primarily within the realm of theology, was first formulated by Gottfried W. Leibniz, who made it the central issue of his theodicy and proposed, as a solution, his theory of the best of all possible worlds. Following the Lisbon earthquake, Voltaire challenged this optimism in his Poem on the Lisbon Disaster, which prompted a written response from Jean-Jacques Rousseau. This debate between two major figures of the Enlightenment culminated in the publication of Candide, one of Voltaire’s most emblematic works. The article traces the evolution of Voltaire’s and Rousseau’s respective philosophical positions in response to the Lisbon earthquake and highlights their significance in contemporary thought.