ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with an examination of concepts of optimism in Europe in the 1700s and links them to the 1755 earthquake and tsunami. It examines how such notions of optimism are considered in light of possible disasters that populations in various parts of the global encounter. Voltaire's approach to thinking about the gratitude that humankind should show God for granting us the mere ability to think about and aim for future goals, acknowledges that it is important to accept the good and the bad that we might encounter. News of the Lisbon earthquake and tsunami spread quickly through Europe. Comparisons between the 1755 tsunami in Lisbon and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami provide ample space for considering perspectives of optimism and conceptualizing many of the challenges of the twenty-first century. The chapter concludes by linking much later notions of optimism to the tragedy of the 2004 earthquake and tsunami.
