溫故知新 Old wisdom, today’s insight — ONGO
If This Is the Best of All Possible Worlds, What Is My Misfortune?
If a perfect God chose this world as the best possible, what place do my misfortune and regret hold within that best?
God chose the best among all possible worlds.
This question split early-modern Europe fiercely over the relation of God and evil. Leibniz, to reconcile God's goodness with the world's evil, built the intricate defense of "the best of all possible worlds," seeking to bind freedom and necessity, predestination and responsibility, into one harmony. But the skeptic Pierre Bayle countered that the reality of evil topples such optimism, and Voltaire, before the horror of the Lisbon earthquake, savagely satirized Leibniz's optimism in "Candide" — if this is the best, whatever must the other worlds be like? Does misfortune have meaning or not, can the world be justified — Leibniz's optimism and Voltaire's mockery still pull taut the two poles of this question.
In an age when seemingly reasonless suffering pours from every headline, Leibniz's question — whether there is nonetheless an order to this world — survives, summoning comfort and revolt at once.
Leibniz offered a bold answer: since a perfect God made this world, it is the best of all possible worlds — even evil and misfortune are shadows needed for a greater good.
📝I, Too, Stand Before It
Leibniz offered a bold answer: since a perfect God made this world, it is the best of all possible worlds — even evil and misfortune are shadows needed for a greater good. This optimism can console, or ring cruel instead. I sense this question sets regret on a cosmic scale — if my suffering is one note within the harmony of the whole, must I resent it or receive it? I stand before it too, unable to settle easily between the claim that my misfortune has meaning and the claim that it simply must be endured.
✍️Your Answer
The lineage of the ancients ends here. Now it is your turn before the question. There is no right answer — only how you, today, would answer.
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