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The phrase "the best of all possible worlds" (French: le meilleur des mondes possibles; German: Die...

The phrase "the best of all possible worlds" (French: le meilleur des mondes possibles; German: Die Beste aller möglichen Welten) was coined by the German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz in his 1710 work Essais de Théodicée sur la bonté de Dieu, la liberté de l'homme et l'origine du mal (Essays on Theodicy, concerning the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man, and the Origin of Evil). It is the central argument in Leibniz's theodicy, or his attempt to solve the problem of evil. Among his many philosophical interests and concerns, Leibniz took on this question of theodicy: If God is omnibenevolent, omnipotent and omniscient, how do we account for the suffering and injustice that exist in the world? Historically, the question has been answered with all number of philosophical arguments, for example, by explaining away evil or reconciling evil with good. For Leibniz, an additional central concern is the matter of reconciling human freedom (indeed, God's own freedom) with the determinism inherent in his own theory of the universe. Leibniz' solution casts God as a kind of "optimizer" of the collection of all original possibilities: Since He is good and omnipotent, and since He chose this