Study Guide to


Voltaire's 

"Story of a Good Brahmin"

 


(1)  A "perennial question" that this story prompts the reader to ask is:  "What (for you) is the good life?"  Needless to say, this involves a thick packet of specific issues, among which are

Do you have some thoughts already to hand on these questions?  How sure are you, honestly, about your answers?

(2)  What exactly is it that makes the Brahmin miserable?  

(3)  What makes the Brahmin in this story a sympathetic character -- worthy of our respect?

(4)  Is the Brahmin here "off track" in any significant respect?  For example:

(5)  How satisfied do you think Voltaire would be with such a response to the Brahmin, or to the narrator, as this:  "Well, he's looking in the wrong place for answers.  All he needs to do is read the Koran!"  OR:  "If he were to become a Christian, all his problems would be taken care of!"

(6)  Would you describe yourself as someone who would choose ignorance over knowledge if the knowledge in question was painful?  Of course, your answer might be different depending on what particular sort of painful knowledge is at stake. 

Of course, one way to deflect the thrust of such questions would be to say, "Well, of course I'd rather 'not know" in the sense that you can't know something that is not the case, and I'd rather that X not be the case in order that I could not "know" that it was."
 
 To address the thrust of the questions, we have to understand them this way:  would you rather know that X is the case, if it were, rather than to remain ignorant of it?

Now ask:



 

  Suggestions are welcome.  Please send your comments to lyman@ksu.edu .

   Contents copyright © 2000 by Lyman A. Baker.

Permission is granted for non-commercial educational use; all other rights reserved.
  This page last updated 21 August 2000.