La filosofia va in scena: il problema della teodicea nel teatro di Voltaire

Abstract

The article aims to analyse Voltaire’s reflection about theodicy in his production, both theatrical and theoretical. The focus is to point out the link between these two parts of his writings. Indeed, although Voltaire is now known as philosopher and writer, at his time he was considered in primis as a dramatist. In his pièces Voltaire inserts many of his philosophical ideas. In particular, Voltaire’s tragedy Sémiramis (1748) will be considered in order to understand how the author deals with the problem of divine justice in his theatre. The problem of theodicy is present in Voltaire’s thinking years before the disaster of Lisbon earthquake of 1755, and Sémiramis highlights this aspect. The evolution of Voltaire’s consideration about the presence of evil is an important part of his philosophical production. In Sémiramis he anticipates some of the considerations presented in the Poème sur le désastre de Lisbonne (1756) and he offers an original solution to this problem.