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<li id="toc-Possible_worlds" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Possible_worlds"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">1.1</span> <span>Possible worlds</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Possible_worlds-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Sufficient_reason" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Sufficient_reason"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">1.2</span> <span>Sufficient reason</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Sufficient_reason-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Evil_in_the_best_world" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Evil_in_the_best_world"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">1.3</span> <span>Evil in the best world</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Evil_in_the_best_world-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li 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class="vector-toc-link" href="#18th_century"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3.1</span> <span>18th century</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-18th_century-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-19th_century" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#19th_century"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3.2</span> <span>19th century</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-19th_century-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-20th_century" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#20th_century"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3.3</span> <span>20th century</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-20th_century-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-21st_century" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-2"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#21st_century"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3.4</span> <span>21st century</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-21st_century-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-See_also" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#See_also"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">4</span> <span>See also</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-See_also-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Explanatory_notes" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Explanatory_notes"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">5</span> <span>Explanatory notes</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Explanatory_notes-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-References" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#References"> <div 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class="vector-dropdown-checkbox " aria-label="Toggle the table of contents" > <label id="vector-page-titlebar-toc-label" for="vector-page-titlebar-toc-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--icon-only " aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-listBullet mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-listBullet"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">Toggle the table of contents</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div id="vector-page-titlebar-toc-unpinned-container" class="vector-unpinned-container"> </div> </div> </div> </nav> <h1 id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading mw-first-heading"><span class="mw-page-title-main">Best of all possible worlds</span></h1> <div id="p-lang-btn" class="vector-dropdown mw-portlet mw-portlet-lang" > <input type="checkbox" id="p-lang-btn-checkbox" role="button" aria-haspopup="true" data-event-name="ui.dropdown-p-lang-btn" 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Available in 11 languages" > <label id="p-lang-btn-label" for="p-lang-btn-checkbox" class="vector-dropdown-label cdx-button cdx-button--fake-button cdx-button--fake-button--enabled cdx-button--weight-quiet cdx-button--action-progressive mw-portlet-lang-heading-11" aria-hidden="true" ><span class="vector-icon mw-ui-icon-language-progressive mw-ui-icon-wikimedia-language-progressive"></span> <span class="vector-dropdown-label-text">11 languages</span> </label> <div class="vector-dropdown-content"> <div class="vector-menu-content"> <ul class="vector-menu-content-list"> <li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ar mw-list-item"><a href="https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A3%D9%81%D8%B6%D9%84_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85_%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%85%D9%83%D9%86%D8%A9" title="أفضل العوالم الممكنة – Arabic" lang="ar" hreflang="ar" data-title="أفضل العوالم الممكنة" data-language-autonym="العربية" data-language-local-name="Arabic" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>العربية</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-de mw-list-item"><a href="https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_beste_aller_m%C3%B6glichen_Welten" title="Die beste aller möglichen Welten – German" lang="de" hreflang="de" data-title="Die beste aller möglichen Welten" data-language-autonym="Deutsch" data-language-local-name="German" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Deutsch</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-es mw-list-item"><a href="https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_mejor_de_los_mundos_posibles" title="El mejor de los mundos posibles – Spanish" lang="es" hreflang="es" data-title="El mejor de los mundos posibles" data-language-autonym="Español" data-language-local-name="Spanish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Español</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-fa mw-list-item"><a href="https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A8%D9%87%D8%AA%D8%B1%DB%8C%D9%86_%D8%AC%D9%87%D8%A7%D9%86%E2%80%8C%D9%87%D8%A7%DB%8C_%D9%85%D9%85%DA%A9%D9%86" title="بهترین جهان‌های ممکن – Persian" lang="fa" hreflang="fa" data-title="بهترین جهان‌های ممکن" data-language-autonym="فارسی" data-language-local-name="Persian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>فارسی</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-fr mw-list-item"><a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meilleur_des_mondes_possibles" title="Meilleur des mondes possibles – French" lang="fr" hreflang="fr" data-title="Meilleur des mondes possibles" data-language-autonym="Français" data-language-local-name="French" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Français</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ko mw-list-item"><a href="https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EC%9E%88%EC%9D%84_%EC%88%98_%EC%9E%88%EB%8A%94_%EC%84%B8%EA%B3%84_%EC%A4%91_%EC%B5%9C%EC%83%81%EC%9D%98_%EC%84%B8%EA%B3%84" title="있을 수 있는 세계 중 최상의 세계 – Korean" lang="ko" hreflang="ko" data-title="있을 수 있는 세계 중 최상의 세계" data-language-autonym="한국어" data-language-local-name="Korean" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>한국어</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-hy mw-list-item"><a href="https://hy.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D4%B2%D5%B8%D5%AC%D5%B8%D6%80_%D5%B0%D5%B6%D5%A1%D6%80%D5%A1%D5%BE%D5%B8%D6%80_%D5%A1%D5%B7%D5%AD%D5%A1%D6%80%D5%B0%D5%B6%D5%A5%D6%80%D5%AB%D6%81_%D5%AC%D5%A1%D5%BE%D5%A1%D5%A3%D5%B8%D6%82%D5%B5%D5%B6%D5%A8" title="Բոլոր հնարավոր աշխարհներից լավագույնը – Armenian" lang="hy" hreflang="hy" data-title="Բոլոր հնարավոր աշխարհներից լավագույնը" data-language-autonym="Հայերեն" data-language-local-name="Armenian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Հայերեն</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-nl mw-list-item"><a href="https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beste_van_alle_mogelijke_werelden" title="Beste van alle mogelijke werelden – Dutch" lang="nl" hreflang="nl" data-title="Beste van alle mogelijke werelden" data-language-autonym="Nederlands" data-language-local-name="Dutch" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Nederlands</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-pt mw-list-item"><a href="https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_melhor_de_todos_os_mundos_poss%C3%ADveis" title="O melhor de todos os mundos possíveis – Portuguese" lang="pt" hreflang="pt" data-title="O melhor de todos os mundos possíveis" data-language-autonym="Português" data-language-local-name="Portuguese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Português</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-ru mw-list-item"><a href="https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9B%D1%83%D1%87%D1%88%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D0%B8%D0%B7_%D0%BC%D0%B8%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2" title="Лучший из миров – Russian" lang="ru" hreflang="ru" data-title="Лучший из миров" data-language-autonym="Русский" data-language-local-name="Russian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Русский</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-uk 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src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ce/Gottfried_Wilhelm_Leibniz%2C_Bernhard_Christoph_Francke.jpg/220px-Gottfried_Wilhelm_Leibniz%2C_Bernhard_Christoph_Francke.jpg" decoding="async" width="220" height="272" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ce/Gottfried_Wilhelm_Leibniz%2C_Bernhard_Christoph_Francke.jpg/330px-Gottfried_Wilhelm_Leibniz%2C_Bernhard_Christoph_Francke.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ce/Gottfried_Wilhelm_Leibniz%2C_Bernhard_Christoph_Francke.jpg/440px-Gottfried_Wilhelm_Leibniz%2C_Bernhard_Christoph_Francke.jpg 2x" data-file-width="4486" data-file-height="5538" /></a><figcaption><a href="/wiki/Gottfried_Leibniz" class="mw-redirect" title="Gottfried Leibniz">Gottfried Leibniz</a>, the philosopher who coined the term "best of all possible worlds" in his 1710 work <i><a href="/wiki/Th%C3%A9odic%C3%A9e" title="Théodicée">Théodicée</a></i>.</figcaption></figure> <style 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.sidebar-list-title,html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .sidebar:not(.notheme) .sidebar-title-with-pretitle{background:transparent!important}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .sidebar:not(.notheme) .sidebar-title-with-pretitle a{color:var(--color-progressive)!important}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .sidebar:not(.notheme) .sidebar-list-title,html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .sidebar:not(.notheme) .sidebar-title-with-pretitle{background:transparent!important}html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .sidebar:not(.notheme) .sidebar-title-with-pretitle a{color:var(--color-progressive)!important}}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .sidebar{display:none!important}}</style><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1246091330"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1246091330"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1246091330"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1246091330"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1246091330"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1246091330"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1246091330"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1246091330"><table class="sidebar sidebar-collapse nomobile nowraplinks hlist"><tbody><tr><td class="sidebar-pretitle">Part of <a href="/wiki/Category:Philosophy_of_religion" title="Category:Philosophy of religion">a series</a> on the</td></tr><tr><th class="sidebar-title-with-pretitle" style="display:block;margin-bottom:0.4em;"><a href="/wiki/Philosophy_of_religion" title="Philosophy of religion">Philosophy of religion</a></th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background:#ddf;text-align:center;;color: var(--color-base)"><a href="/wiki/Religion" title="Religion">Religious</a> concepts</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content" style="padding-left:0.35em;padding-right:0.35em;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Afterlife" title="Afterlife">Afterlife</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Apophatic_theology" title="Apophatic theology">Apophatism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Cataphatic_theology" title="Cataphatic theology">Cataphatism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Eschatology" title="Eschatology">Eschatology</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Enlightenment_in_Buddhism" title="Enlightenment in Buddhism">Enlightenment</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Intelligent_design" title="Intelligent design">Intelligent design</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Moksha" title="Moksha">Liberation</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Miracle" title="Miracle">Miracle</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Mysticism" title="Mysticism">Mysticism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Belief#Religion" title="Belief"><span class="wrap">Religious belief</span></a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Reincarnation" title="Reincarnation">Reincarnation</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Faith" title="Faith">Religious faith</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Religious_text" title="Religious text"><span class="wrap">Scripture (religious text)</span></a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Soul" title="Soul">Soul</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Vitalism" title="Vitalism">Spirit</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Theological_veto" title="Theological veto">Theological veto</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background:#ddf;text-align:center;;color: var(--color-base)">Challenges</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content" style="padding-left:0.35em;padding-right:0.35em;;padding-bottom:0;"><table class="sidebar nomobile nowraplinks" style="background-color: transparent; color: var( --color-base ); border-collapse:collapse; border-spacing:0px; border:none; width:100%; margin:0px; font-size:100%; clear:none; float:none"><tbody><tr><td class="sidebar-content" style="padding:0.15em 0.3em 0.6em;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Ethical_egoism" title="Ethical egoism">Ethical egoism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Euthyphro_dilemma" title="Euthyphro dilemma">Euthyphro dilemma</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Logical_positivism" title="Logical positivism">Logical positivism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Problem_of_religious_language" title="Problem of religious language">Religious language</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Verificationism" title="Verificationism">Verificationism</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Eschatological_verification" title="Eschatological verification">eschatological</a></li></ul></li></ul></td> </tr><tr><th class="sidebar-heading" style="background:#e6e6ff; font-weight:normal;"> <a href="/wiki/Problem_of_evil" title="Problem of evil">Problem of evil</a></th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content" style="padding:0.15em 0.3em 0.6em;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Theodicy" title="Theodicy">Theodicy</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Augustinian_theodicy" title="Augustinian theodicy">Augustinian</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Irenaean_theodicy" title="Irenaean theodicy">Irenaean</a></li></ul></li> <li><a class="mw-selflink selflink"><span class="wrap">Best of all possible worlds</span></a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Inconsistent_triad" title="Inconsistent triad">Inconsistent triad</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Natural_evil" title="Natural evil">Natural evil</a></li></ul></td> </tr></tbody></table></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background:#ddf;text-align:center;;color: var(--color-base)"><a href="/wiki/God" title="God">God</a></div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content" style="padding-left:0.35em;padding-right:0.35em;;padding-bottom:0;"><table class="sidebar nomobile nowraplinks" style="background-color: transparent; color: var( --color-base ); border-collapse:collapse; border-spacing:0px; border:none; width:100%; margin:0px; font-size:100%; clear:none; float:none"><tbody><tr><th class="sidebar-heading" style="background:#e6e6ff;font-weight:normal;"> <a href="/wiki/Conceptions_of_God" title="Conceptions of God">Conceptions</a></th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content" style="padding:0.15em 0.5em 0.6em;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Anthropopathism" title="Anthropopathism">Anthropopathism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Brahman" title="Brahman">Brahman</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Demiurge" title="Demiurge">Demiurge</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Divine_simplicity" title="Divine simplicity">Divinely simple</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Form_of_the_Good" title="Form of the Good">Form of the Good</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Holy_Spirit" title="Holy Spirit">Holy Spirit</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Misotheism" title="Misotheism">Maltheist</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Occasionalism" title="Occasionalism">Occasionalism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Pandeism" title="Pandeism">Pandeist</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Personal_god" title="Personal god">Personal</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Process_theology" title="Process theology">Process-theological</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Summum_bonum" title="Summum bonum">Summum bonum</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Creator_deity" title="Creator deity">Supreme Being</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Unmoved_mover" title="Unmoved mover">Unmoved mover</a></li></ul></td> </tr><tr><th class="sidebar-heading" style="background:#e6e6ff;font-weight:normal;"> <a href="/wiki/Existence_of_God" title="Existence of God">Existence</a></th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content" style="padding:0.15em 0.5em 0.6em;"> <table class="sidebar nomobile nowraplinks" style="background-color: transparent; color: var( --color-base ); border-collapse:collapse; border-spacing:0px; border:none; width:100%; margin:0px; font-size:100%; clear:none; float:none"><tbody><tr><th class="sidebar-heading" style="font-weight:normal;"> Arguments for</th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content" style="padding-left:0.4em;padding-right:0.4em;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Argument_from_beauty" title="Argument from beauty">Beauty</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Christological_argument" title="Christological argument">Christological</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Lewis%27s_trilemma" title="Lewis's trilemma">Trilemma</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Resurrection_of_Jesus" title="Resurrection of Jesus">Resurrection</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Argument_from_consciousness" title="Argument from consciousness">Consciousness</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Cosmological_argument" title="Cosmological argument">Cosmological</a> <ul><li><i><a href="/wiki/Kalam_cosmological_argument" title="Kalam cosmological argument">kalām</a></i></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Cosmological_argument#Argument_from_contingency" title="Cosmological argument">contingency</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Cosmological_argument#Metaphysical_argument_for_the_existence_of_God" title="Cosmological argument">metaphysical</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Argument_from_degree" title="Argument from degree">Degree</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Argument_from_desire" title="Argument from desire">Desire</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Argument_from_religious_experience" title="Argument from religious experience">Experience</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Leap_of_faith" title="Leap of faith">Existential choice</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Fine-tuned_universe" title="Fine-tuned universe">Fine-tuned universe</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Argument_from_love" title="Argument from love">Love</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Mathematics_and_God" title="Mathematics and God">Mathematics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Argument_from_miracles" title="Argument from miracles">Miracles</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Argument_from_morality" title="Argument from morality">Morality</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/George_Berkeley#Theology" title="George Berkeley">Mystical idealism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Natural-law_argument" title="Natural-law argument">Natural law</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Proof_of_the_Truthful" title="Proof of the Truthful">Necessary existent</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Seddiqin_argument" title="Seddiqin argument">Seddiqin</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Nyayakusumanjali" title="Nyayakusumanjali">Nyayakusumanjali</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Occam%27s_razor#Religion" title="Occam's razor">Occam's Razor</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ontological_argument" title="Ontological argument">Ontological</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_ontological_proof" title="Gödel's ontological proof">Gödel</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ontological_argument#Modal_versions_of_the_ontological_argument" title="Ontological argument">Modal</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Proslogion" title="Proslogion">Anselm</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Meinongian_argument" title="Meinongian argument">Meinongian</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Transcendent_theosophy" title="Transcendent theosophy">Mulla Sadra</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Baruch_Spinoza#Ontological_argument" title="Baruch Spinoza">Spinoza</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Pascal%27s_wager" title="Pascal's wager">Pascal's wager</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Reformed_epistemology" title="Reformed epistemology">Proper basis / Reformed epistemology</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Argument_from_reason" title="Argument from reason">Reason</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Religious_responses_to_the_problem_of_evil" title="Religious responses to the problem of evil">Responses to evil</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Teleological_argument" title="Teleological argument">Teleological</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Intelligent_design" title="Intelligent design">Intelligent design</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Watchmaker_analogy" title="Watchmaker analogy">Watchmaker</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Junkyard_tornado" title="Junkyard tornado">Junkyard</a></li></ul></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Trademark_argument" title="Trademark argument">Trademark</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Transcendental_argument_for_the_existence_of_God" title="Transcendental argument for the existence of God">Transcendental</a></li></ul></td> </tr><tr><th class="sidebar-heading" style="font-weight:normal;"> Arguments against</th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content" style="padding-left:0.4em;padding-right:0.4em;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Ultimate_Boeing_747_gambit" title="Ultimate Boeing 747 gambit">747 gambit</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Atheist%27s_wager" title="Atheist's wager">Atheist's wager</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Problem_of_the_creator_of_God" title="Problem of the creator of God">Creator of God</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Problem_of_evil" title="Problem of evil">Evil</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Evil_God_challenge" title="Evil God challenge">Evil God</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Fate_of_the_unlearned" title="Fate of the unlearned">Fate of the unlearned</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Argument_from_free_will" title="Argument from free will">Free will</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/God_of_the_gaps" title="God of the gaps">God of the gaps</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Problem_of_Hell" title="Problem of Hell">Hell</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Hitchens%27s_razor" title="Hitchens's razor">Hitchens's razor</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Incompatible-properties_argument" title="Incompatible-properties argument">Incompatible properties</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Argument_from_inconsistent_revelations" class="mw-redirect" title="Argument from inconsistent revelations"><span class="wrap">Inconsistency</span></a></li> <li>No limits fallacy</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Argument_from_nonbelief" title="Argument from nonbelief">Nonbelief</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Theological_noncognitivism" title="Theological noncognitivism">Noncognitivism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Omnipotence_paradox" title="Omnipotence paradox"><span class="wrap">Omnipotence paradox</span></a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Argument_from_poor_design" title="Argument from poor design">Poor design</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Russell%27s_teapot" title="Russell's teapot">Russell's teapot</a></li></ul></td> </tr></tbody></table></td> </tr><tr><th class="sidebar-heading" style="background:#e6e6ff;font-weight:normal;"> By religion</th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content" style="padding:0.15em 0.5em 0.6em;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/God_in_Abrahamic_religions" title="God in Abrahamic religions">Abrahamic</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/God_in_the_Bah%C3%A1%CA%BC%C3%AD_Faith" title="God in the Baháʼí Faith">Baháʼí</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/God_in_Christianity" title="God in Christianity">Christianity</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/God_in_Islam" title="God in Islam">Islam</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/God_in_Judaism" title="God in Judaism">Judaism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/God_in_Mormonism" title="God in Mormonism">Mormonism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Hayyi_Rabbi" title="Hayyi Rabbi">Mandaeism</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Creator_in_Buddhism" title="Creator in Buddhism">Buddhism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/God_in_Hinduism" title="God in Hinduism">Hinduism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/God_in_Jainism" title="God in Jainism">Jainism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/God_in_Sikhism" title="God in Sikhism">Sikhism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Wiccan_views_of_divinity" title="Wiccan views of divinity">Wicca</a></li></ul></td> </tr></tbody></table></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background:#ddf;text-align:center;;color: var(--color-base)"><a href="/wiki/Theories_about_religion" title="Theories about religion">Theories of religion</a></div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content" style="padding-left:0.35em;padding-right:0.35em;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Acosmism" title="Acosmism">Acosmism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Agnosticism" title="Agnosticism">Agnosticism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Animism" title="Animism">Animism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Antireligion" title="Antireligion">Antireligion</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Atheism" title="Atheism">Atheism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Creationism" title="Creationism">Creationism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Dharma" title="Dharma">Dharmism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Deism" title="Deism">Deism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Divine_command_theory" title="Divine command theory">Divine command theory</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Dualism_in_cosmology" title="Dualism in cosmology">Dualism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Western_esotericism" title="Western esotericism">Esotericism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Exclusivism" title="Exclusivism">Exclusivism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Existentialism" title="Existentialism">Existentialism</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Atheistic_existentialism" title="Atheistic existentialism">atheist</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Christian_existentialism" title="Christian existentialism">Christian</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Feminist_theology" title="Feminist theology">Feminist</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Fundamentalism" title="Fundamentalism">Fundamentalism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Gnosticism" title="Gnosticism">Gnosticism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Henotheism" title="Henotheism">Henotheism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Humanism" title="Humanism">Humanism</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Christian_humanism" title="Christian humanism">Christian</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Religious_humanism" title="Religious humanism">religious</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Secular_humanism" title="Secular humanism">secular</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Inclusivism" title="Inclusivism">Inclusivism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Monism" title="Monism">Monism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Monotheism" title="Monotheism">Monotheism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Mysticism" title="Mysticism">Mysticism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Naturalism_(philosophy)" title="Naturalism (philosophy)">Naturalism</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Humanistic_naturalism" class="mw-redirect" title="Humanistic naturalism">humanistic</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Metaphysical_naturalism" title="Metaphysical naturalism">metaphysical</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Religious_naturalism" title="Religious naturalism">religious</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/New_Age" title="New Age">New Age</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Nonduality_(spirituality)" class="mw-redirect" title="Nonduality (spirituality)">Nondualism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Nontheism" title="Nontheism">Nontheism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Pandeism" title="Pandeism">Pandeism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Panentheism" title="Panentheism">Panentheism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Pantheism" title="Pantheism">Pantheism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Perennial_philosophy" title="Perennial philosophy">Perennialism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Polytheism" title="Polytheism">Polytheism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Process_theology" title="Process theology">Process</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Secular_Shrine_Theory" title="Secular Shrine Theory">Secular Shrine Theory</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Shendao_shejiao" title="Shendao shejiao">Shendao shejiao</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Spiritualism_(beliefs)" title="Spiritualism (beliefs)">Spiritualism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Shamanism" title="Shamanism">Shamanism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/East_Asian_religions" title="East Asian religions">Taoic</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Theism" title="Theism">Theism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Transcendentalism" title="Transcendentalism">Transcendentalism</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background:#ddf;text-align:center;;color: var(--color-base)"><a href="/wiki/Category:Philosophers_of_religion" title="Category:Philosophers of religion">Philosophers of religion</a></div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content" style="padding-left:0.35em;padding-right:0.35em;;padding-bottom:0;"><table class="sidebar nomobile nowraplinks" style="background-color: transparent; color: var( --color-base ); border-collapse:collapse; border-spacing:0px; border:none; width:100%; margin:0px; font-size:100%; clear:none; float:none"><tbody><tr><th class="sidebar-heading" style="background:#e6e6ff;font-weight:normal;"> <a href="/wiki/Ancient_Greek_philosophy" title="Ancient Greek philosophy">Ancient</a> and <a href="/wiki/Medieval_philosophy" title="Medieval philosophy">medieval</a></th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content" style="padding:0.1em 1.25em 0.6em;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Anselm_of_Canterbury" title="Anselm of Canterbury">Anselm of Canterbury</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippo" title="Augustine of Hippo">Augustine of Hippo</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Avicenna" title="Avicenna">Avicenna</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Averroes" title="Averroes">Averroes</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Boethius" title="Boethius">Boethius</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Gaudapada" title="Gaudapada">Gaudapada</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Al-Ghazali" title="Al-Ghazali">Al-Ghazali</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Gaunilo_of_Marmoutiers" title="Gaunilo of Marmoutiers">Gaunilo of Marmoutiers</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Giovanni_Pico_della_Mirandola" title="Giovanni Pico della Mirandola">Pico della Mirandola</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Heraclitus" title="Heraclitus">Heraclitus</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/James_VI_and_I" title="James VI and I">King James VI and I</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Marcion_of_Sinope" title="Marcion of Sinope">Marcion of Sinope</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Maimonides" title="Maimonides">Maimonides</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Adi_Shankara" title="Adi Shankara">Adi Shankara</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Thomas_Aquinas" title="Thomas Aquinas">Thomas Aquinas</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/William_of_Ockham" title="William of Ockham">William of Ockham</a></li></ul></td> </tr><tr><th class="sidebar-heading" style="background:#e6e6ff;font-weight:normal;"> <a href="/wiki/Early_modern_philosophy" title="Early modern philosophy">Early modern</a></th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content" style="padding:0.1em 1.25em 0.6em;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Antoine_Augustin_Calmet" title="Antoine Augustin Calmet">Augustin Calmet</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Descartes" title="René Descartes">René Descartes</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Blaise_Pascal" title="Blaise Pascal">Blaise Pascal</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Desiderius_Erasmus" class="mw-redirect" title="Desiderius Erasmus">Desiderius Erasmus</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Baruch_Spinoza" title="Baruch Spinoza">Baruch Spinoza</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Nicolas_Malebranche" title="Nicolas Malebranche">Nicolas Malebranche</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Gottfried_Wilhelm_Leibniz" title="Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz">Gottfried W Leibniz</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/William_Wollaston" title="William Wollaston">William Wollaston</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Thomas_Chubb" title="Thomas Chubb">Thomas Chubb</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/David_Hume" title="David Hume">David Hume</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Baron_d%27Holbach" title="Baron d'Holbach">Baron d'Holbach</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Immanuel_Kant" title="Immanuel Kant">Immanuel Kant</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Johann_Gottfried_Herder" title="Johann Gottfried Herder">Johann G Herder</a></li></ul></td> </tr><tr><th class="sidebar-heading" style="background:#e6e6ff;font-weight:normal;"> <a href="/wiki/19th-century_philosophy" title="19th-century philosophy">19th-century</a></th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content" style="padding:0.1em 1.25em 0.6em;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Friedrich_Schleiermacher" title="Friedrich Schleiermacher">Friedrich Schleiermacher</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Karl_Christian_Friedrich_Krause" title="Karl Christian Friedrich Krause">Karl C F Krause</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Georg_Wilhelm_Friedrich_Hegel" title="Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel">Georg W F Hegel</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Thomas_Carlyle" title="Thomas Carlyle">Thomas Carlyle</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/William_Whewell" title="William Whewell">William Whewell</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ludwig_Feuerbach" title="Ludwig Feuerbach">Ludwig Feuerbach</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/S%C3%B8ren_Kierkegaard" title="Søren Kierkegaard">Søren Kierkegaard</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Karl_Marx" title="Karl Marx">Karl Marx</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Albrecht_Ritschl" title="Albrecht Ritschl">Albrecht Ritschl</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Afrikan_Spir" title="Afrikan Spir">Afrikan Spir</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Usman_dan_Fodio" title="Usman dan Fodio">Usman dan Fodio</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ernst_Haeckel" title="Ernst Haeckel">Ernst Haeckel</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/William_Kingdon_Clifford" title="William Kingdon Clifford">W K Clifford</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche" title="Friedrich Nietzsche">Friedrich Nietzsche</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Harald_H%C3%B8ffding" title="Harald Høffding">Harald Høffding</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/William_James" title="William James">William James</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Vladimir_Solovyov_(philosopher)" title="Vladimir Solovyov (philosopher)">Vladimir Solovyov</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ernst_Troeltsch" title="Ernst Troeltsch">Ernst Troeltsch</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Rudolf_Otto" title="Rudolf Otto">Rudolf Otto</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Lev_Shestov" title="Lev Shestov">Lev Shestov</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ernst_Cassirer" title="Ernst Cassirer">Ernst Cassirer</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Joseph_Mar%C3%A9chal" title="Joseph Maréchal">Joseph Maréchal</a></li></ul></td> </tr><tr><th class="sidebar-heading" style="background:#e6e6ff;font-weight:normal;"> <a href="/wiki/Contemporary_philosophy" title="Contemporary philosophy">Contemporary</a></th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content" style="padding:0.1em 1.25em 0.6em;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/George_Santayana" title="George Santayana">George Santayana</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Bertrand_Russell" title="Bertrand Russell">Bertrand Russell</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Martin_Buber" title="Martin Buber">Martin Buber</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Sergei_Bulgakov" title="Sergei Bulgakov">Sergei Bulgakov</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Gu%C3%A9non" title="René Guénon">René Guénon</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Paul_Tillich" title="Paul Tillich">Paul Tillich</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Karl_Barth" title="Karl Barth">Karl Barth</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Pavel_Florensky" title="Pavel Florensky">Pavel Florensky</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Emil_Brunner" title="Emil Brunner">Emil Brunner</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Rudolf_Bultmann" title="Rudolf Bultmann">Rudolf Bultmann</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Gabriel_Marcel" title="Gabriel Marcel">Gabriel Marcel</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Reinhold_Niebuhr" title="Reinhold Niebuhr">Reinhold Niebuhr</a></li></ul> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Charles_Hartshorne" title="Charles Hartshorne">Charles Hartshorne</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Mircea_Eliade" title="Mircea Eliade">Mircea Eliade</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Frithjof_Schuon" title="Frithjof Schuon">Frithjof Schuon</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/J._L._Mackie" title="J. L. Mackie">J. L. Mackie</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Walter_Kaufmann_(philosopher)" title="Walter Kaufmann (philosopher)">Walter Kaufmann</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Martin_Lings" title="Martin Lings">Martin Lings</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Peter_Geach" title="Peter Geach">Peter Geach</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/George_I._Mavrodes" title="George I. Mavrodes">George I Mavrodes</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/William_Alston" title="William Alston">William Alston</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Antony_Flew" title="Antony Flew">Antony Flew</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Kurt_Godel" class="mw-redirect" title="Kurt Godel">Kurt Godel</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Graham_Oppy" title="Graham Oppy">Graham Oppy</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/J._L._Schellenberg" title="J. L. Schellenberg">J. L. Schellenberg</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Paul_Draper_(philosopher)" title="Paul Draper (philosopher)">Paul Draper</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/William_L._Rowe" title="William L. Rowe">William L Rowe</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Dewi_Zephaniah_Phillips" title="Dewi Zephaniah Phillips">Dewi Z Phillips</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Alvin_Plantinga" title="Alvin Plantinga">Alvin Plantinga</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Anthony_Kenny" title="Anthony Kenny">Anthony Kenny</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Nicholas_Wolterstorff" title="Nicholas Wolterstorff">Nicholas Wolterstorff</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Richard_Swinburne" title="Richard Swinburne">Richard Swinburne</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Robert_Merrihew_Adams" title="Robert Merrihew Adams">Robert Merrihew Adams</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ravi_Zacharias" title="Ravi Zacharias">Ravi Zacharias</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Peter_van_Inwagen" title="Peter van Inwagen">Peter van Inwagen</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Cornel_West" title="Cornel West">Cornel West</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Loyal_Rue" title="Loyal Rue">Loyal Rue</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Herman_Philipse" title="Herman Philipse">Herman Philipse</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Kai_Nielsen_(philosopher)" title="Kai Nielsen (philosopher)">Kai Nielsen</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Jean-Luc_Marion" title="Jean-Luc Marion">Jean-Luc Marion</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/William_Lane_Craig" title="William Lane Craig">William Lane Craig</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ali_Akbar_Rashad" title="Ali Akbar Rashad">Ali Akbar Rashad</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Yujin_Nagasawa" title="Yujin Nagasawa">Yujin Nagasawa</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Alexander_Pruss" title="Alexander Pruss">Alexander Pruss</a></li></ul></td> </tr></tbody></table></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wraplinks"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="background:#ddf;text-align:center;;color: var(--color-base)">Related topics</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content" style="padding-left:0.35em;padding-right:0.35em;"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Criticism_of_religion" title="Criticism of religion">Criticism of religion</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ethics_in_religion" title="Ethics in religion">Ethics in religion</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Exegesis" title="Exegesis">Exegesis</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Faith_and_rationality" title="Faith and rationality">Faith and rationality</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/History_of_religion" title="History of religion">History of religions</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Natural_theology" title="Natural theology">Natural theology</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Relationship_between_religion_and_science" title="Relationship between religion and science">Religion and science</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Religious_philosophy" title="Religious philosophy">Religious philosophy</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Theology" title="Theology">Theology</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-below"> <a href="/wiki/Index_of_philosophy_of_religion_articles" title="Index of philosophy of religion articles">Philosophy of religion article index</a></td></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-navbar"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239400231">.mw-parser-output .navbar{display:inline;font-size:88%;font-weight:normal}.mw-parser-output .navbar-collapse{float:left;text-align:left}.mw-parser-output .navbar-boxtext{word-spacing:0}.mw-parser-output .navbar ul{display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;line-height:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-brackets::before{margin-right:-0.125em;content:"[ "}.mw-parser-output .navbar-brackets::after{margin-left:-0.125em;content:" ]"}.mw-parser-output .navbar li{word-spacing:-0.125em}.mw-parser-output .navbar a>span,.mw-parser-output .navbar a>abbr{text-decoration:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-mini abbr{font-variant:small-caps;border-bottom:none;text-decoration:none;cursor:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-ct-full{font-size:114%;margin:0 7em}.mw-parser-output .navbar-ct-mini{font-size:114%;margin:0 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rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1246091330"><table class="sidebar sidebar-collapse nomobile nowraplinks hlist"><tbody><tr><td class="sidebar-pretitle">Part of <a href="/wiki/Category:Theodicy" title="Category:Theodicy"><i>a series</i></a> on</td></tr><tr><th class="sidebar-title-with-pretitle"><a href="/wiki/Theodicy" title="Theodicy">Theodicy</a></th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="color: var(--color-base)"><div class="sidebar-list-title-c">Key concepts</div></div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Absence_of_good" title="Absence of good">Absence of good</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Augustinian_theodicy" title="Augustinian theodicy">Augustinian theodicy</a></li> <li><a class="mw-selflink selflink">Best of all possible worlds</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Divine_retribution" title="Divine retribution">Divine retribution</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Dystheism" title="Dystheism">Dystheism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Epicurean_paradox" title="Epicurean paradox">Epicurean paradox</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Free_will" title="Free will">Free will</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Inconsistent_triad" title="Inconsistent triad">Inconsistent triad</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Irenaean_theodicy" title="Irenaean theodicy">Irenaean theodicy</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Misotheism" title="Misotheism">Misotheism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Moral_evil" title="Moral evil">Moral evil</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Natural_evil" title="Natural evil">Natural evil</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Problem_of_evil" title="Problem of evil">Problem of evil</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="color: var(--color-base)"><div class="sidebar-list-title-c">Notable figures</div></div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippo" title="Augustine of Hippo">Saint Augustine</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Bart_D._Ehrman" title="Bart D. Ehrman">Ehrman</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Epicurus" title="Epicurus">Epicurus</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/John_Hick" title="John Hick">Hick</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/David_Hume" title="David Hume">Hume</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Irenaeus" title="Irenaeus">Saint Irenaeus</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Gottfried_Wilhelm_Leibniz" title="Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz">Leibniz</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Joseph_de_Maistre" title="Joseph de Maistre">Maistre</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche" title="Friedrich Nietzsche">Nietzsche</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Alvin_Plantinga" title="Alvin Plantinga">Plantinga</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/William_L._Rowe" title="William L. Rowe">Rowe</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Richard_Swinburne" title="Richard Swinburne">Swinburne</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Elie_Wiesel" title="Elie Wiesel">Wiesel</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-navbar"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1239400231"><div class="navbar plainlinks hlist navbar-mini"><ul><li class="nv-view"><a href="/wiki/Template:Theodicy" title="Template:Theodicy"><abbr title="View this template">v</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-talk"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Template_talk:Theodicy&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Template talk:Theodicy (page does not exist)"><abbr title="Discuss this template">t</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-edit"><a href="/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:Theodicy" title="Special:EditPage/Template:Theodicy"><abbr title="Edit this template">e</abbr></a></li></ul></div></td></tr></tbody></table> <p>The phrase "<b>the best of all possible worlds</b>" (<a href="/wiki/French_language" title="French language">French</a>: <i lang="fr">Le meilleur des mondes possibles</i>; <a href="/wiki/German_language" title="German language">German</a>: <i lang="de">Die beste aller möglichen Welten</i>) was coined by the <a href="/wiki/German_people" class="mw-redirect" title="German people">German</a> <a href="/wiki/Polymath" title="Polymath">polymath</a> and <a href="/wiki/Enlightenment_philosophy" class="mw-redirect" title="Enlightenment philosophy">Enlightenment philosopher</a> <a href="/wiki/Gottfried_Leibniz" class="mw-redirect" title="Gottfried Leibniz">Gottfried Leibniz</a> in his 1710 work <i><a href="/wiki/Th%C3%A9odic%C3%A9e" title="Théodicée">Essais de Théodicée sur la bonté de Dieu, la liberté de l'homme et l'origine du mal</a></i> (<i>Essays of Theodicy on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil</i>),<sup id="cite_ref-Caro_2020_1-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Caro_2020-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> more commonly known simply as the <i>Theodicy</i>. The claim that the actual world is the best of all <a href="/wiki/Possible_world" title="Possible world">possible worlds</a> is the central argument in Leibniz's <a href="/wiki/Theodicy" title="Theodicy">theodicy</a>, or his attempt to solve the <a href="/wiki/Problem_of_evil" title="Problem of evil">problem of evil</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-Caro_2020_1-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Caro_2020-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <meta property="mw:PageProp/toc" /> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Leibniz">Leibniz</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Best_of_all_possible_worlds&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Leibniz"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>In Leibniz's works, the argument about the best of all possible worlds appears in the context of his <i><a href="/wiki/Theodicy" title="Theodicy">theodicy</a></i>, a word that he coined by combining the Greek words <i>Theos</i>, 'God', and <i>dikē</i>, 'justice'.<sup id="cite_ref-:0_2-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:0-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Its object was to solve the <a href="/wiki/Problem_of_evil" title="Problem of evil">problem of evil</a>, that is, to reconcile the existence of evil and suffering in the world with the existence of a <a href="/wiki/Omnibenevolence" title="Omnibenevolence">perfectly good</a>, <a href="/wiki/Omnipotence" title="Omnipotence">all-powerful</a> and <a href="/wiki/Omniscience" title="Omniscience">all-knowing</a> <a href="/wiki/God" title="God">God</a>, who would seem required to prevent it; as such, the name comes from Leibniz's conceiving of the project as the vindication of God's justice, namely against the charges of injustice brought against him by such evils.<sup id="cite_ref-:0_2-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:0-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Proving that this is the best of all possible worlds would dispel such charges by showing that, no matter how it may intuitively appear to us from our limited point of view, any other world – such as, namely, one without the evils which trouble our lives – would, in fact, have been worse than the current one, all things considered.<sup id="cite_ref-:0_2-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:0-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p> Leibniz's argument for this conclusion may be gathered<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> from the paragraphs 53–55 of his <i><a href="/wiki/Monadology" title="Monadology">Monadology</a></i>, which run as follows:<style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1244412712">.mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 32px}.mw-parser-output .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;margin-top:0}@media(min-width:500px){.mw-parser-output .templatequotecite{padding-left:1.6em}}</style></p><blockquote class="templatequote"><p>53. Now as there are an infinity of possible universes in the ideas of God, and but one of them can exist, there must be a sufficient reason for the choice of God which determines him to select one rather than another. </p><p>54. And this reason is to be found only in the <i>fitness</i> or in the degree of perfection which these worlds possess, each possible thing having the right to claim existence in proportion to the perfection which it involves. </p><p> 55. This is the cause for the existence of the greatest good; namely, that the wisdom of God permits him to know it, his goodness causes him to choose it, and his power enables him to produce it.<sup id="cite_ref-:1_4-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:1-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></p></blockquote><p>Since this is a very compact exposition, the remainder of this section will explain the argument in more words. While the text refers to "possible universes", this article will often adopt the more common usage "possible worlds", which refers to the same thing, which is explained next. As Leibniz said in the <i>Theodicy</i>, this term should not be misunderstood as referring only to a single planet or reality, since it refers to the sum of everything that exists:<link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1244412712"></p><blockquote class="templatequote"><p>I call 'World' the whole succession and the whole agglomeration of all existent things, lest it be said that several worlds could have existed in different times and different places.<sup id="cite_ref-:2_5-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:2-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></p></blockquote> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Possible_worlds">Possible worlds</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Best_of_all_possible_worlds&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Possible worlds"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Possible worlds, according to Leibniz's theory, are combinations of beings which are possible together, that is, <a href="/wiki/Compossibility" title="Compossibility">compossible</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-:3_6-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:3-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>A being is <i>possible</i>, for Leibniz, when it is <a href="/wiki/Logical_possibility" title="Logical possibility">logically possible</a>, i.e., when its definition involves no contradiction.<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> For example, a <i>married bachelor</i> is <i>impossible</i> because a "bachelor" is, by definition, an unmarried man, which contradicts "married". But a <i>unicorn</i>, if defined as a horse with a horn, contains no contradiction, so that such a being is <i>possible</i>, even if none exist in the actual world. </p><p>Beings are <i><a href="/wiki/Compossibility" title="Compossibility">possible together</a></i>, in turn, when they do not enter into contradiction with <i>each other</i>. For instance, it is <i>logically</i> possible that a meteor might have fallen from the sky onto Wikipedia founder <a href="/wiki/Jimmy_Wales" title="Jimmy Wales">Jimmy Wales</a>'s head soon after he was born, killing him. But it is <i>not</i> logically possible that what happens in a given world (e.g. that Jimmy Wales founded Wikipedia) also does <i>not</i> happen in the same world (i.e. that Jimmy Wales did <i>not</i> found Wikipedia). While both of these events are logically possible <i>in themselves</i>, they are not logically possible <i>together</i>, or <i>compossible</i> – so, they cannot form part of the same possible world. </p><p>Leibniz claims in §53, then, that there are infinitely many of these possible worlds, or combinations of compossible beings, in the <a href="/wiki/Idea" title="Idea">ideas</a> of God. These are the worlds which God <i>could</i> possibly bring into existence, since not even God, according to Leibniz, could create a world which contains a contradiction.<sup id="cite_ref-:3_6-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:3-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Sufficient_reason">Sufficient reason</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Best_of_all_possible_worlds&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: Sufficient reason"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Although God cannot create a self-contradictory world, he is <a href="/wiki/Omnipotence" title="Omnipotence">all-powerful</a> and <a href="/wiki/Omniscience" title="Omniscience">all-knowing</a>, as emphasized in §55. He cannot be prevented from creating a world by not knowing about it, or by lacking the power to make it. Given these assumptions, it might seem that God could create just any one of the worlds. And since there are infinitely many possible worlds, it might seem that, just as there is no greatest among the infinitely many numbers,<sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-9"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>a<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> there is no best of the possible worlds. </p><p> Leibniz rejects these possibilities by appealing to the <a href="/wiki/Principle_of_sufficient_reason" title="Principle of sufficient reason">Principle of Sufficient Reason</a> (PSR), a central principle of his philosophical system.<sup id="cite_ref-:3_6-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:3-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> This principle, which he was the first to name, was once described by him as the principle "that nothing happens without a reason";<sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-10"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>9<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> in the <i>Monadology</i>, which is the work at hand, he described it as follows:<link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1244412712"></p><blockquote class="templatequote"><p>31. Our reasoning is based upon <i>two great principles</i>: first, <i>that of contradiction</i>, by means of which we decide that to be <i>false</i> which involves contradiction and that to be <i>true</i> which contradicts or is opposed to the false. 32. And second, the <i>principle of sufficient reason</i>, in virtue of which we believe that no fact can be real or existing and no statement true unless it has a sufficient reason why it should be thus and not otherwise. Most frequently, however, these reasons cannot be known by us.<sup id="cite_ref-:1_4-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:1-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></p></blockquote><p>Since Leibniz adopted his principle, he could not admit that God chose to create this world rather than another – that God's choice was "thus and not otherwise" – <i>for no reason,</i> or "arbitrarily". </p><p>Leibniz then claims that the <i>only</i> possible reason for the choice between these possible worlds is "the fitness or the degree of perfection" which they possess – i.e., the quality which makes worlds better than others, so that the world with the greatness "fitness" or "perfection" is the best one. As the philosophers Michael Murray and Sean Greenberg interpreted it, this claim may be understood by the consideration that basing the choice on any <i>other</i> quality about the worlds would have been arbitrary, contrary to the PSR.<sup id="cite_ref-:4_11-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:4-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Leibniz claims that God's choice is caused not only by its being the most reasonable, but also by God's <a href="/wiki/Omnibenevolence" title="Omnibenevolence">perfect goodness</a>, a traditional claim about God which Leibniz accepted.<sup id="cite_ref-:0_2-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:0-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-12" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-12"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>b<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> As Leibniz says in §55, God's goodness causes him to produce the best world. Hence, the best possible world, or "greatest good" as Leibniz called it in this work, must be the one that exists. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Evil_in_the_best_world">Evil in the best world</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Best_of_all_possible_worlds&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: Evil in the best world"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Leibniz, following a long metaphysical tradition that goes back at least to <a href="/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippo" title="Augustine of Hippo">Augustine</a>, conceived of the perfection of the universe as its "metaphysical goodness", which is identical with "being", or "reality". The best world is the one with the greatest "degree of reality", the greatest "quantity of essence", the greatest "perfection" and "intelligibility".<sup id="cite_ref-:0_2-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:0-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> According to this tradition, "evil, though real, is not a 'thing', but rather a direction away from the goodness of the One";<sup id="cite_ref-13" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-13"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>11<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> evil is the <a href="/wiki/Absence_of_good" title="Absence of good">absence of good</a>, and accordingly, it is technically wrong to say that God <i>created evil</i>, properly speaking. Rather, he created a world which was <i>imperfectly good</i>. </p><p>According to the <i>privation theory of evil</i>, all examples of evils are analysed as consisting in the absence of some good that ought to be there, or is natural to a thing – for instance, disease is the absence of health, blindness is the absence of sight, and vice is the absence of virtue. Evil may be said to exist in the same way the hole of a donut exists: the donut was created, but the hole itself was not <i>made</i>, it was just never filled in – it is an absence.<sup id="cite_ref-:4_11-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:4-11"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> And just as the hole could not exist without the donut, evil is parasitic upon good, since it is the corruption of a <i>good</i> nature. "God is infinite, and the devil is limited; the good may and does go to infinity, while evil has its bounds."<sup id="cite_ref-Thomson/Wadsworth_14-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Thomson/Wadsworth-14"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>12<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Leibniz did, nevertheless, concede that God has created a world with evil in it, and could have created a world without it. He claimed, however, that the existence of evil does not necessarily mean a worse world, so that this is still the best world that God could have made. In fact, Leibniz claimed that the presence of evil may make for a <i>better</i> world, insofar as "it may happen that the evil is accompanied by a greater good"<sup id="cite_ref-15" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-15"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>13<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> – as he said, "an imperfection in the part may be required for a perfection in the whole".<sup id="cite_ref-Thomson/Wadsworth_14-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Thomson/Wadsworth-14"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>12<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p> In light of the conceptual tools that have already been explained, this claim may be phrased as stating that there are goods in the universe which would not be <i>compossible</i> with the prevention of certain evils. This claim, which may seem counterintuitive, was elucidated by Leibniz in various ways. For instance, in the <i>Theodicy</i>, he used certain analogies to emphasize how the <i>contrast</i> provided by evil may increase the good, and make it more discernible:<link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1244412712"></p><blockquote class="templatequote"><p>Use has ever been made of comparisons taken from the pleasures of the senses when these are mingled with that which borders on pain, to prove that there is something of like nature in intellectual pleasures. A little acid, sharpness or bitterness is often more pleasing than sugar; shadows enhance colours; and even a dissonance in the right place gives relief to harmony. We wish to be terrified by rope-dancers on the point of falling and we wish that tragedies shall well-nigh cause us to weep. Do men relish health enough, or thank God enough for it, without having ever been sick? And is it not most often necessary that a little evil render the good more discernible, that is to say, greater?<sup id="cite_ref-:2_5-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:2-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></p></blockquote><p>In other works, Leibniz also used his broader theory that there are no "purely extrinsic denominations" – everything that may be said about something is <i>essential</i> to it. So, according to Leibniz, it is technically wrong to say that "I would be better off" in another possible world: each individual is <i>world-bound</i>, so that, if God had not actualized this specific world, <i>I</i> would not exist at all. And even if, due to my great personal suffering, I should think that it would be better <i>for me</i> to not exist, it would nevertheless be worse for the <i>rest</i> of the universe, since this world is the best possible world, as was proved.<sup id="cite_ref-:0_2-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:0-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Before_Leibniz">Before Leibniz</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Best_of_all_possible_worlds&action=edit&section=5" title="Edit section: Before Leibniz"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>The philosopher Calvin Normore has claimed that, according to the <a href="/wiki/Stoicism" title="Stoicism">Stoics</a>, this is the best of all possible worlds, and that this opinion was shared by <a href="/wiki/Peter_Abelard" title="Peter Abelard">Peter Abelard</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-16" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-16"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>14<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p><a href="/wiki/Avicenna" title="Avicenna">Avicenna</a> argued that divine providence ensures that this is the best of all possible worlds.<sup id="cite_ref-17" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-17"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>15<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p><a href="/wiki/Aquinas" class="mw-redirect" title="Aquinas">Thomas Aquinas</a>, in article 6 of question 25 of the first part of his <i><a href="/wiki/Summa_Theologica" title="Summa Theologica">Summa Theologiae</a></i>,<sup id="cite_ref-18" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-18"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>16<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> had affirmed that God can <i>always</i> make better what he has made, but only by making more things; "the present creation being supposed, cannot be better." </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="After_Leibniz">After Leibniz</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Best_of_all_possible_worlds&action=edit&section=6" title="Edit section: After Leibniz"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="18th_century">18th century</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Best_of_all_possible_worlds&action=edit&section=7" title="Edit section: 18th century"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Following the devastating <a href="/wiki/1755_Lisbon_earthquake" title="1755 Lisbon earthquake">Lisbon Earthquake</a> (1 November 1755), which occurred decades after the publication of the <i><a href="/wiki/Th%C3%A9odic%C3%A9e" title="Théodicée">Theodicy</a></i> (1710), Leibniz's philosophical optimism and theodicy incurred considerable criticism both from his fellow <a href="/wiki/Enlightenment_philosophy" class="mw-redirect" title="Enlightenment philosophy">Enlightenment philosophers</a> and from <a href="/wiki/Christian_theology" title="Christian theology">Christian theologians</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-Caro_2020_1-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Caro_2020-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Critics of Leibniz argue that the world contains an amount of suffering too great to permit belief in philosophical optimism.<sup id="cite_ref-Caro_2020_1-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Caro_2020-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>The claim that we live in the best of all possible worlds drew scorn most notably from <a href="/wiki/Voltaire" title="Voltaire">Voltaire</a>, who lampooned it in his comic novella <i><a href="/wiki/Candide" title="Candide">Candide</a></i> by having the character Dr. Pangloss (a parody of Leibniz and <a href="/wiki/Pierre_Louis_Maupertuis" title="Pierre Louis Maupertuis">Maupertuis</a>) repeat it like a <a href="/wiki/Mantra" title="Mantra">mantra</a> when great catastrophes keep happening to him and the titular protagonist. Derived from this character, the adjective "<a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Panglossian" class="extiw" title="wikt:Panglossian">Panglossian</a>" describes a person who believes that the actual world is the best possible one, or is otherwise excessively optimistic. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="19th_century">19th century</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Best_of_all_possible_worlds&action=edit&section=8" title="Edit section: 19th century"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>The physiologist <a href="/wiki/Emil_du_Bois-Reymond" title="Emil du Bois-Reymond">Emil du Bois-Reymond</a>, in his "Leibnizian Thoughts in Modern Science" (1870), wrote that Leibniz thought of God as a <a href="/wiki/Mathematician" title="Mathematician">mathematician</a>: </p> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1244412712"><blockquote class="templatequote"><p>As is well known, the theory of the <a href="/wiki/Maxima_and_minima" class="mw-redirect" title="Maxima and minima">maxima and minima</a> of <a href="/wiki/Function_(mathematics)" title="Function (mathematics)">functions</a> was indebted to him for the greatest progress through the discovery of the method of <a href="/wiki/Tangent" title="Tangent">tangents</a>. Well, he conceives God in the creation of the world like a mathematician who is solving a minimum problem, or rather, in our modern phraseology, a problem in the <a href="/wiki/Calculus_of_variations" title="Calculus of variations">calculus of variations</a> – the question being to determine among an infinite number of possible worlds, that for which the sum of necessary evil is a minimum.</p></blockquote> <p>Du Bois-Reymond believed that <a href="/wiki/Charles_Darwin" title="Charles Darwin">Charles Darwin</a> supported a version of Leibniz's perfect world, since every organism can be understood as relatively adapted to its environment at any point in its evolution.<sup id="cite_ref-19" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-19"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>17<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-20" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-20"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>18<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p><a href="/wiki/Arthur_Schopenhauer" title="Arthur Schopenhauer">Arthur Schopenhauer</a> argued, contrary to Leibniz, that our world must be the <i>worst</i> of all possible worlds, because if it were only a little worse, it could not continue to exist.<sup id="cite_ref-21" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-21"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>19<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="20th_century">20th century</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Best_of_all_possible_worlds&action=edit&section=9" title="Edit section: 20th century"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>The <i>Theodicy</i> was deemed illogical by the philosopher <a href="/wiki/Bertrand_Russell" title="Bertrand Russell">Bertrand Russell</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-22" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-22"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>20<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Russell argues that moral and physical evil must result from metaphysical evil (imperfection). But imperfection is merely limitation; if existence is good, as Leibniz maintains, then the mere existence of evil requires that evil also be good. In addition, <a href="/wiki/Libertarianism_(metaphysics)" title="Libertarianism (metaphysics)">libertarian</a> Christian theology (not related to political <a href="/wiki/Libertarianism" title="Libertarianism">libertarianism</a>) defines sin as not necessary but contingent, the result of free will. Russell maintains that Leibniz failed to logically show that metaphysical necessity (divine will) and human free will are not incompatible or contradictory. He also claims that when Leibniz analyzes the propositions, he is "ambiguous or doubtful..." (O'Briant). That is, Leibniz does not sound sure, and is unsure of himself when he writes his premises; and they do not work together without making Leibniz sound unsure of himself. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="21st_century">21st century</h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Best_of_all_possible_worlds&action=edit&section=10" title="Edit section: 21st century"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>The philosopher <a href="/wiki/Alvin_Plantinga" title="Alvin Plantinga">Alvin Plantinga</a> criticized Leibniz's theodicy by arguing that there probably is not such a thing as <i>the best</i> of all possible worlds, since one can always conceive a better world, such as a world with one more morally righteous person.<sup id="cite_ref-23" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-23"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>21<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p> The philosopher William C. Lane defended Leibniz from Plantinga's criticism and also claimed that Leibniz's theory has <a href="/wiki/Pandeism" title="Pandeism">pandeistic</a> consequences:<link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1244412712"></p><blockquote class="templatequote"><p>If divine becoming were complete, God's <i><a href="/wiki/Kenosis" title="Kenosis">kenosis</a></i> – God's self-emptying for the sake of love – would be total. In this <i>pandeistic</i> view, nothing of God would remain separate and apart from what God would become. Any separate divine existence would be inconsistent with God's unreserved participation in the lives and fortunes of the actualized phenomena."<sup id="cite_ref-Lane_24-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Lane-24"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>22<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup class="reference nowrap"><span title="Page / location: 67">: 67 </span></sup></p></blockquote> <p>Leibniz's theodicy has been defended by Justin Daeley, who argues that God must create the best,<sup id="cite_ref-25" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-25"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>23<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> and <a href="/wiki/James_Franklin_(philosopher)" title="James Franklin (philosopher)">James Franklin</a>, who argues that goods and evils in creation are interconnected with mathematical necessity and hence cannot be separated by divine power.<sup id="cite_ref-26" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-26"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>24<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="See_also">See also</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Best_of_all_possible_worlds&action=edit&section=11" title="Edit section: See also"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Divine_simplicity" title="Divine simplicity">Divine simplicity</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Fine-tuned_universe" title="Fine-tuned universe">Fine-tuned universe</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Is-ought_problem" class="mw-redirect" title="Is-ought problem">Is-ought problem</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Just-world_fallacy" title="Just-world fallacy">Just-world fallacy</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Summum_bonum" title="Summum bonum">Summum bonum</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/World_to_Come" class="mw-redirect" title="World to Come">World to Come</a></li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Explanatory_notes">Explanatory notes</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Best_of_all_possible_worlds&action=edit&section=12" title="Edit section: Explanatory notes"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239543626">.mw-parser-output .reflist{margin-bottom:0.5em;list-style-type:decimal}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .reflist{font-size:90%}}.mw-parser-output .reflist .references{font-size:100%;margin-bottom:0;list-style-type:inherit}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-2{column-width:30em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-3{column-width:25em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns{margin-top:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns ol{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns li{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-alpha{list-style-type:upper-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-roman{list-style-type:upper-roman}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-alpha{list-style-type:lower-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-greek{list-style-type:lower-greek}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-roman{list-style-type:lower-roman}</style><div class="reflist reflist-lower-alpha"> <div class="mw-references-wrap"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-9"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-9">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Leibniz himself affirmed, in his <i>Discourse on Metaphysics</i>, that the idea of a <i>greatest number</i> was self-contradictory: <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1244412712"><blockquote class="templatequote"><p>We must also know what perfection is. One thing which can surely be affirmed about it is that those forms or natures which are not susceptible of it to the highest degree, say the nature of numbers or of figures, do not permit of perfection. This is because the number which is the greatest of all (that is, the sum of all the numbers), and likewise the greatest of all figures, imply contradictions. The greatest knowledge, however, and omnipotence contain no impossibility. Consequently power and knowledge do admit of perfection, and in so far as they pertain to God they have no limits.<sup id="cite_ref-:5_8-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:5-8"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>8<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></p></blockquote></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-12"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-12">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">While the presentation of the argument in the <i>Monadology</i> only mentions God's goodness in passing, Leibniz mentions God's goodness, and its foundation on tradition, more at length in chapter 3 of his <i>Discourse on Metaphysics</i>: <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1244412712"><blockquote class="templatequote"><p>I think that one acts imperfectly if he acts with less perfection than he is capable of. To show that an architect could have done better is to find fault with his work. Furthermore this opinion is contrary to the Holy Scriptures when they assure us of the goodness of God's work.<sup id="cite_ref-:5_8-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-:5-8"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>8<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup></p></blockquote></span> </li> </ol></div></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Best_of_all_possible_worlds&action=edit&section=13" title="Edit section: References"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1239543626"><div class="reflist"> <div class="mw-references-wrap mw-references-columns"><ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-Caro_2020-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Caro_2020_1-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Caro_2020_1-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Caro_2020_1-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Caro_2020_1-3"><sup><i><b>d</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1238218222">.mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free.id-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited.id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration.id-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription.id-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background-size:contain;padding:0 1em 0 0}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#085;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}</style><cite id="CITEREFCaro2020" class="citation book cs1">Caro, Hernán D. (2020). <i>The Best of All Possible Worlds? Leibniz's Philosophical Optimism and Its Critics 1710–1755</i>. Brill's Studies in Intellectual History. Vol. 322. <a href="/wiki/Leiden" title="Leiden">Leiden</a>: <a href="/wiki/Brill_Publishers" title="Brill Publishers">Brill Publishers</a>. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-90-04-21846-8" title="Special:BookSources/978-90-04-21846-8"><bdi>978-90-04-21846-8</bdi></a>. <a href="/wiki/ISSN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISSN (identifier)">ISSN</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0920-8607">0920-8607</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=The+Best+of+All+Possible+Worlds%3F+Leibniz%27s+Philosophical+Optimism+and+Its+Critics+1710%E2%80%931755&rft.place=Leiden&rft.series=Brill%27s+Studies+in+Intellectual+History&rft.pub=Brill+Publishers&rft.date=2020&rft.issn=0920-8607&rft.isbn=978-90-04-21846-8&rft.aulast=Caro&rft.aufirst=Hern%C3%A1n+D.&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ABest+of+all+possible+worlds" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-:0-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-:0_2-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-:0_2-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-:0_2-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-:0_2-3"><sup><i><b>d</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-:0_2-4"><sup><i><b>e</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-:0_2-5"><sup><i><b>f</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFAntognazza2016" class="citation book cs1">Antognazza, Maria Rosa (2016). <i>Leibniz: a very short introduction</i> (First ed.). Oxford, United Kingdom. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-19-871864-2" title="Special:BookSources/978-0-19-871864-2"><bdi>978-0-19-871864-2</bdi></a>. <a href="/wiki/OCLC_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="OCLC (identifier)">OCLC</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/960695264">960695264</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Leibniz%3A+a+very+short+introduction&rft.place=Oxford%2C+United+Kingdom&rft.edition=First&rft.date=2016&rft_id=info%3Aoclcnum%2F960695264&rft.isbn=978-0-19-871864-2&rft.aulast=Antognazza&rft.aufirst=Maria+Rosa&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ABest+of+all+possible+worlds" class="Z3988"></span><span class="cs1-maint citation-comment"><code class="cs1-code">{{<a href="/wiki/Template:Cite_book" title="Template:Cite book">cite book</a>}}</code>: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (<a href="/wiki/Category:CS1_maint:_location_missing_publisher" title="Category:CS1 maint: location missing publisher">link</a>)</span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160521105212/http://colintemple.com/2012/03/best-possible-world-leibniz/">"Leibniz: The Best of All Possible Worlds"</a>. <i>Colin Temple</i>. 2012-03-01. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://colintemple.com/2012/03/best-possible-world-leibniz/">the original</a> on 2016-05-21<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2016-05-17</span></span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=unknown&rft.jtitle=Colin+Temple&rft.atitle=Leibniz%3A+The+Best+of+All+Possible+Worlds&rft.date=2012-03-01&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fcolintemple.com%2F2012%2F03%2Fbest-possible-world-leibniz%2F&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ABest+of+all+possible+worlds" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-:1-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-:1_4-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-:1_4-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/leibniz.htm">"Leiniz's Monadology"</a>. <i>www.marxists.org</i><span class="reference-accessdate">. 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(2021). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/why-god-must-do-what-is-best-9781350109896/"><i>Why God Must Do What is Best: A Philosophical Investigation of Theistic Optimism</i></a>. London: Bloomsbury Academic. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-350-10989-6" title="Special:BookSources/978-1-350-10989-6"><bdi>978-1-350-10989-6</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Why+God+Must+Do+What+is+Best%3A+A+Philosophical+Investigation+of+Theistic+Optimism&rft.place=London&rft.pub=Bloomsbury+Academic&rft.date=2021&rft.isbn=978-1-350-10989-6&rft.aulast=Daeley&rft.aufirst=Justin+J.&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomsbury.com%2Fus%2Fwhy-god-must-do-what-is-best-9781350109896%2F&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ABest+of+all+possible+worlds" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-26"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-26">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFFranklin2022" class="citation journal cs1">Franklin, James (2022). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1080%2F14746700.2022.2124481">"The global/local distinction vindicates Leibniz's theodicy"</a>. <i>Theology and Science</i>. <b>20</b> (4): 445–462. <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<span class="id-lock-free" title="Freely accessible"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1080%2F14746700.2022.2124481">10.1080/14746700.2022.2124481</a></span>. <a href="/wiki/Hdl_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Hdl (identifier)">hdl</a>:<span class="id-lock-free" title="Freely accessible"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://hdl.handle.net/1959.4%2Funsworks_80586">1959.4/unsworks_80586</a></span>. <a href="/wiki/S2CID_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="S2CID (identifier)">S2CID</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:252979403">252979403</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=Theology+and+Science&rft.atitle=The+global%2Flocal+distinction+vindicates+Leibniz%27s+theodicy&rft.volume=20&rft.issue=4&rft.pages=445-462&rft.date=2022&rft_id=info%3Ahdl%2F1959.4%2Funsworks_80586&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.semanticscholar.org%2FCorpusID%3A252979403%23id-name%3DS2CID&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1080%2F14746700.2022.2124481&rft.aulast=Franklin&rft.aufirst=James&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fdoi.org%2F10.1080%252F14746700.2022.2124481&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ABest+of+all+possible+worlds" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> </ol></div></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Best_of_all_possible_worlds&action=edit&section=14" title="Edit 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decoding="async" width="34" height="40" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Wikiquote-logo.svg/51px-Wikiquote-logo.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Wikiquote-logo.svg/68px-Wikiquote-logo.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="300" data-file-height="355" /></span></span></div> <div class="side-box-text plainlist">Wikiquote has quotations related to <i><b><a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gottfried_Leibniz#The_best_of_all_possible_worlds" class="extiw" title="q:Gottfried Leibniz">Leibniz on "The best of all possible worlds"</a></b></i>.</div></div> </div> <p><b>Freely accessible works by Leibniz:</b> </p> <ul><li><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17147" class="extiw" title="gutenberg:17147"><i>Theodicy</i></a> at <a href="/wiki/Project_Gutenberg" title="Project Gutenberg">Project Gutenberg</a></li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/leibniz1686d.pdf">Discourse on Metaphysics</a> at <i>Early Modern Texts</i></li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/leibniz.htm">Monadology</a> at <a href="/wiki/Marxists_Internet_Archive" title="Marxists Internet Archive">Marxists Internet Archive</a></li></ul> <p><b>Secondary literature about Leibniz:</b> </p> <ul><li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.maths.unsw.edu.au/~jim/think.pdf">Leibniz's solution to the problem of evil</a></li></ul> <div class="navbox-styles"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1236075235">.mw-parser-output .navbox{box-sizing:border-box;border:1px solid #a2a9b1;width:100%;clear:both;font-size:88%;text-align:center;padding:1px;margin:1em auto 0}.mw-parser-output .navbox .navbox{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .navbox+.navbox,.mw-parser-output .navbox+.navbox-styles+.navbox{margin-top:-1px}.mw-parser-output .navbox-inner,.mw-parser-output .navbox-subgroup{width:100%}.mw-parser-output .navbox-group,.mw-parser-output .navbox-title,.mw-parser-output .navbox-abovebelow{padding:0.25em 1em;line-height:1.5em;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .navbox-group{white-space:nowrap;text-align:right}.mw-parser-output .navbox,.mw-parser-output .navbox-subgroup{background-color:#fdfdfd}.mw-parser-output .navbox-list{line-height:1.5em;border-color:#fdfdfd}.mw-parser-output .navbox-list-with-group{text-align:left;border-left-width:2px;border-left-style:solid}.mw-parser-output tr+tr>.navbox-abovebelow,.mw-parser-output tr+tr>.navbox-group,.mw-parser-output tr+tr>.navbox-image,.mw-parser-output tr+tr>.navbox-list{border-top:2px solid #fdfdfd}.mw-parser-output .navbox-title{background-color:#ccf}.mw-parser-output .navbox-abovebelow,.mw-parser-output .navbox-group,.mw-parser-output .navbox-subgroup .navbox-title{background-color:#ddf}.mw-parser-output .navbox-subgroup .navbox-group,.mw-parser-output .navbox-subgroup .navbox-abovebelow{background-color:#e6e6ff}.mw-parser-output .navbox-even{background-color:#f7f7f7}.mw-parser-output .navbox-odd{background-color:transparent}.mw-parser-output .navbox .hlist td dl,.mw-parser-output .navbox .hlist td ol,.mw-parser-output .navbox .hlist td ul,.mw-parser-output .navbox td.hlist dl,.mw-parser-output .navbox td.hlist ol,.mw-parser-output .navbox td.hlist ul{padding:0.125em 0}.mw-parser-output .navbox .navbar{display:block;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .navbox-title .navbar{float:left;text-align:left;margin-right:0.5em}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .navbox-image img{max-width:none!important}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .navbox{display:none!important}}</style></div><div role="navigation" class="navbox" aria-labelledby="Gottfried_Wilhelm_Leibniz" style="padding:3px"><table class="nowraplinks hlist mw-collapsible autocollapse navbox-inner" style="border-spacing:0;background:transparent;color:inherit"><tbody><tr><th scope="col" class="navbox-title" colspan="2"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1239400231"><div class="navbar plainlinks hlist navbar-mini"><ul><li class="nv-view"><a href="/wiki/Template:Gottfried_Wilhelm_Leibniz" title="Template:Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz"><abbr title="View this template">v</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-talk"><a href="/wiki/Template_talk:Gottfried_Wilhelm_Leibniz" title="Template talk:Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz"><abbr title="Discuss this template">t</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-edit"><a href="/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:Gottfried_Wilhelm_Leibniz" title="Special:EditPage/Template:Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz"><abbr title="Edit this template">e</abbr></a></li></ul></div><div id="Gottfried_Wilhelm_Leibniz" style="font-size:114%;margin:0 4em"><a href="/wiki/Gottfried_Wilhelm_Leibniz" title="Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz">Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz</a></div></th></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><div style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.2em; padding: .1em 0;">Mathematics and<br />philosophy</div></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Alternating_series_test" title="Alternating series test">Alternating series test</a></li> <li><a class="mw-selflink selflink">Best of all possible worlds</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Leibniz%E2%80%93Newton_calculus_controversy" title="Leibniz–Newton calculus controversy">Calculus controversy</a></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Calculus_ratiocinator" title="Calculus ratiocinator">Calculus ratiocinator</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Characteristica_universalis" title="Characteristica universalis">Characteristica universalis</a></i></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Compossibility" title="Compossibility">Compossibility</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Difference_(philosophy)" title="Difference (philosophy)">Difference</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Dynamism_(metaphysics)" title="Dynamism (metaphysics)">Dynamism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Identity_of_indiscernibles" title="Identity of indiscernibles">Identity of indiscernibles</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Individuation" title="Individuation">Individuation</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Law_of_continuity" title="Law of continuity">Law of continuity</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Leibniz_wheel" title="Leibniz wheel">Leibniz wheel</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Leibniz%27s_gap" title="Leibniz's gap">Leibniz's gap</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Leibniz%27s_notation" title="Leibniz's notation">Leibniz's notation</a></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Lingua_generalis" title="Lingua generalis">Lingua generalis</a></i></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Mathesis_universalis" title="Mathesis universalis">Mathesis universalis</a></i></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Pre-established_harmony" class="mw-redirect" title="Pre-established harmony">Pre-established harmony</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Principle_of_plenitude" title="Principle of plenitude">Plenitude</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Principle_of_sufficient_reason" title="Principle of sufficient reason">Sufficient reason</a></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Salva_veritate" title="Salva veritate">Salva veritate</a></i></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Theodicy" title="Theodicy">Theodicy</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Transcendental_law_of_homogeneity" title="Transcendental law of homogeneity">Transcendental law of homogeneity</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Rationalism" title="Rationalism">Rationalism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Universal_science" title="Universal science">Universal science</a></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Vis_viva" title="Vis viva">Vis viva</a></i></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Well-founded_phenomenon" class="mw-redirect" title="Well-founded phenomenon">Well-founded phenomenon</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Works</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><i><a href="/wiki/De_Arte_Combinatoria" title="De Arte Combinatoria">De Arte Combinatoria</a></i> <span style="font-size:85%;">(1666)</span></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Discourse_on_Metaphysics" title="Discourse on Metaphysics">Discourse on Metaphysics</a></i> <span style="font-size:85%;">(1686)</span></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/New_Essays_on_Human_Understanding" title="New Essays on Human Understanding">New Essays on Human Understanding</a></i> <span style="font-size:85%;">(1704)</span></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Th%C3%A9odic%C3%A9e" title="Théodicée">Théodicée</a></i> <span style="font-size:85%;">(1710)</span></li> <li><i><a href="/wiki/Monadology" title="Monadology">Monadology</a></i> <span style="font-size:85%;">(1714)</span></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Leibniz%E2%80%93Clarke_correspondence" title="Leibniz–Clarke correspondence">Leibniz–Clarke correspondence</a> <span style="font-size:85%;">(1715–1716)</span></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><td class="navbox-abovebelow" colspan="2"><div><span class="noviewer" typeof="mw:File"><span title="Category"><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/96/Symbol_category_class.svg/16px-Symbol_category_class.svg.png" decoding="async" width="16" height="16" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/96/Symbol_category_class.svg/23px-Symbol_category_class.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/96/Symbol_category_class.svg/31px-Symbol_category_class.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="180" data-file-height="185" /></span></span> <a href="/wiki/Category:Gottfried_Wilhelm_Leibniz" title="Category:Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz">Category</a></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div>    </div><noscript><img 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