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18 Ariz. J. Int'l & Comp. L. 279 (2001)
Nature v. Nurture: Evolution, Path Dependence and Corporate Governance

handle is hein.journals/ajicl18 and id is 291 raw text is: NATURE V. NURTURE: EVOLUTION, PATH DEPENDENCE AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE Craig LaChance* INTRODUCTION In Voltaire's Candide,' the philosopher Dr. Pangloss,2 who teaches metaphysico-theologo-cosmolo-nigology,3 tells Candide that things cannot be otherwise, for, everything being made for an end, everything is necessarily for the best end. Note that noses were made to wear spectacles, and so we have spectacles. Legs were visibly instituted to be breeched, and we have breeches. Stones were formed to be cut and to make into castles; so My Lord has a very handsome castle.. ! The existence, therefore, of everything is justified merely by its actuality. We have feet, for instance, so that we may wear shoes. Since all things in existence have a distinct functional presence, we must live in the best of all possible worlds. Everything is in its place and operating as should be. In proving such, Pangloss famously validated the status quo.5 Panglossian philosophy even extends to social institutions. As Pangloss himself claims, his Lady, by virtue of ruling over him, must be the best of all possi.ble Baronesses.6 Undoubtedly, this philosophy could be stretched to innumerable social relationships: we have social classes so that there are people to work for the Baron, we have love so that we can reproduce, etc. While this kind of causal correspondence is comforting, even a mere cursory examination of life reveals that things are often more nuanced. Consider, for example, the effect that the invention of the chimney had on social relations in medieval Europe. Candidate for J.D., 2001, James E. Rogers College of Law, University of Arizona; B.A., 1995 Utah State University; M.A., 2000 Arizona State University. 1. See FRANcoIs MARIE AROUET DE VOLTAIRE, CANDiDE (Signet Classic ed., 1961). 2. Pangloss's name, translated from Greek, means all tongue. See id. at 16 note 3. 3. Id. The nigo likely comes from the French word nigaud, which literally translates as booby. See id. note 4. 4. Ia Volatire famously based Pangloss on the German philosopher Gottfiied Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716), who notoriously claimed that we live in the best of all possible worlds. Leibniz's view, which holds that each individual is a bundle of possibility, and that by actualizing the individual, God makes the best of all possible worlds, is actually much more complicated than allowed for by Voltaire. 5. Later in the book, Pangloss even proclaims that the venereal disease he has contracted is an indispensable thing in the best of worlds. Id. at 23. 6. Id. at 16.

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