THE BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS

A distinguished German historian explores the life of the late-17th-century philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.

Leibniz was easily one of the greatest minds to have emerged from the Enlightenment, yet he is little discussed today. Proceeding from the philosopher’s belief in the importance of “constantly changing one’s position and taking on a new point of view,” Kempe examines Leibniz’s life by focusing on seven key days between ages 29 and 70. He carefully reconstructs those days not only to give a sense of Leibniz’s world but also to allow readers a glimpse into the restlessness of a man who, at his death, left observations penned on 100,000 pages “of every size imaginable.” The story begins in 1675, when Leibniz, then living in Paris, had successfully created the symbolic language associated with infinitesimal calculus. Even as he pondered the workings of his system, his broad-ranging mind was also musing on how symbols could be used to “parse the totality of human knowledge into simple terms.” Each of the chapters that follow finds the philosopher a little older and in a new city, drinking coffee and working on an astonishing variety of projects: windmills for mining operations, irrigation systems for noble families, and in-depth political histories of German royal houses. Some of his ideas, like the notion that his binary mathematical system could be used to decipher “the world and its knowledge” appear far-fetched, but they are all part of his enduring faith in progress and what is possible. As well researched as it is readable, this study will appeal not only to scholars of Leibniz and the Enlightenment, but to anyone with an interest in well-articulated, imaginatively crafted intellectual histories.

A unique biography about one of the world’s most brilliant polymaths.