Gottfried Leibniz · Mathematics

Sufficient Reason and the Best of All Possible Worlds

Leibniz the metaphysician: the principle of sufficient reason, the monads as the true atoms of reality, and the famous and much-mocked claim that ours is the best of all possible worlds - the optimisation logic of a mathematician applied to existence itself.

What you'll be able to recall

You learned Leibniz’s metaphysics: the principle of sufficient reason, the monads, and the claim that this is the best of all possible worlds. Explain how a mathematician’s habit of optimisation shaped his picture of reality.

Leads to Voltaire.

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