candide, random questions?

Question

what does pangloss' name mean? what's the deal with the whole meta-physico-theologo-cosmolonigology stuff? it's so confusing! does anybody understand it?what does this have to do with him and his name?

Answer 1

"Pangloss" is derived from Greek and can mean both "all languages" as "all talking". He is Voltaire's caricature of the German baroque universal genius Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. There are olots of helpful webpages to give you some background: