Philosophy › Reason, experience & Enlightenment › Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
"The best of all possible worlds"
1710 (Theodicy)· Idea or argument· Reality, mind & God
Well documentedSolid records, texts or physical evidence.
Leibniz's claim that, since a perfect God chose to create, this world, evil included, must be the best one possible.
See it on the Philosophy map →The idea
Idea: this is the best of all possible worlds. Reasoning: God is all-good, all-wise and all-powerful; he surveyed every possible world and must have picked the best. Evil exists because the best overall world may need some, as a painting needs shadows. Leibniz coined 'theodicy' for such a defense of God's justice. Main objection: after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake killed tens of thousands (estimates vary), calling this world 'best' struck many as cruel.
Why it matters
It is the best-known modern answer to the problem of evil, and its mockery in Candide made 'optimism' a byword for naive complacency.
Where it comes from
Set out in the Theodicy (1710), the only full-length book Leibniz published in his lifetime, written partly in reply to the skeptic Pierre Bayle.
Still debated
Whether 'best possible world' even makes sense, since any world might be improved, is still debated in philosophy of religion.
Connections (2)
▸Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz argued for "The best of all possible worlds"Well documented
The connection
Leibniz's principle of sufficient reason says God must have a reason for creating this world rather than another. A perfect God's reason can only be that it is the best: the greatest variety of things under the simplest laws. So this world, with its evils, is the best possible, as he argued in his Theodicy.
When and how
Theodicy, published in Amsterdam in 1710, partly in reply to Pierre Bayle and drawing on talks with Queen Sophie Charlotte of Prussia.
How we know
The Theodicy argues it at length, and the idea also appears in his Discourse on Metaphysics (1686) and Monadology (1714).
Debates and open questions
Whether God is truly free if he must choose the best was questioned in Leibniz's day and still is.
▸"The best of all possible worlds" was mocked by VoltaireWell documented
The connection
Voltaire turned Leibniz's optimism into satire. In Candide, the tutor Pangloss keeps insisting that all is for the best while he and his pupil suffer war, shipwreck, earthquake and the Inquisition. The 1755 Lisbon earthquake, which killed tens of thousands, had already moved Voltaire to write a poem attacking optimism.
When and how
Poem on the Lisbon Disaster (1756) and Candide, published anonymously in Geneva in 1759, quickly banned and a bestseller.
How we know
Candide parodies the doctrine directly, with Pangloss teaching 'metaphysico-theologo-cosmolonigology', and Voltaire's poem and letters tie his attack to Lisbon.
Debates and open questions
Pangloss caricatures Alexander Pope's popular 'whatever is, is right' as much as Leibniz's careful argument; how fair the satire was is debated.