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From Susan Neiman, Evil in Modern Thought:

Over and over, Voltaire underlined two claims [in Candide]. As an instrument of truth, reason leads us astray, for it is inattentive to the claims of the world. As an instrument of action, reason leads us nowhere at all, for it's too weak to move anyone to anything. Reason, in short, is both false and feeble. What human beings need, and use, is something else. In a splendid commentary on natural law Candide tries to save himself from cannibals by appealing to universal principles of humanity. His guide Cacambo knows better and rescues them by appealing both to pragmatism and to thirst for the right sort of blood. The cannibals are directed to go out and eat a real Jesuit. They "found this discourse perfectly reasonable," and Voltaire's readers are left to wonder. Whence his reputation as paradigmatic Enlightenment thinker? For his aim at the most central of Enlightenment beliefs was as straight as it's clear: reason can't explain the world, and reason can't help us navigate it.

This is a damn good book.