To live in the 17th century, it was still possible to be an expert in everything. The phrase used to describe Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz is “universal genius.” He lived from 1646-1716, and in that time his genius transformed the world.
This book by Michael Kempe takes an unusual and welcome approach to Leibniz. Instead of trying to stuff everything in one giant book, he isolates 7 days in the life of the great polymath, building a story around each one. The result is a digestible account of an amazing life, one that gives the non-specialist a generous understanding of what he did, and what limitations prevented him from achieving his many goals.
Kempe is the director of the Leibniz Research Centre, and the Leibniz-Archive in Hanover, Germany. He teaches history at the University of Konstanz. He published this book in German in 2022, and it now been expertly translated into English by Marshall Yarbrough of Brooklyn, NY.
We meet Leibniz on October 29, 1675. Kempe shows us the manuscript in which the integral sign is written for the first time. “Viola – with a stroke of his quill, Leibniz creates a symbol without which it is impossible to imagine advanced mathematics.” Infinitesimal calculus is at the heart of every aspect of modern life, from medicine to physics. But Kempe lets us see it is far more than that. “The integral sign represents a muted form of faith in progress – and thus corresponds to Leibniz’s own temperament, which knows neither crushing sadness nor excessive merriment.” Leibniz had one over-riding faith: “that there is no alternative to calculable rationality.”
In his entry for February 11, 1686, Kempe delivers the line that became the book’s title. “What is inherent in the Leibnizian concept of the best of all possible worlds is the salvational promise of an ongoing labor on the possible. For Leibniz, nothing is impossible. He constantly sounds out and recasts the limits of the doable.” He really believes this is the best of all possible worlds: “The world is an interwoven phenomenon; all its parts and processes are interlinked; they mesh and complement one another in an optimal way.” This holistic approach very much defines much of modern thought on the world.
We next see Leibniz on August 13, 1696, the day he started a diary. Here we learn that “Leibniz believes in the immortality of the soul. Leibniz doesn’t only save the soul from its demise; he also saves the living thing that goes with.” Crucially, he asserts that “preserving the soul does not require an extraordinary act of divine grace. Everything happens in a natural manner.”
It was on April 17, 1703 that Leibniz divided the world into ones and zeroes. It was now that he founded the digital revolution that all computers operate on. This creation, “seen as a kind of worldview, is his metaphysical optimism in mathematical garb.” He was so excited by this that he proposed a medal be minted “depicting the creation of the world (represented by the night sky, sun, and stars) and a pyramid made of ones and zeroes.” As if this was not enough, he also laid “the groundwork for theoretical informatics by proving that there is a limit to the statements one can derive from formal systems.” It was only in 1931 that Kurt Godel’s incompleteness theorems made any advance on Leibniz in 1703.
On January 19, 1710, Leibniz puts the finishing touches on the only philosophical work that was published in his lifetime. “Leibniz musters a whole arsenal of arguments to justify the existence of evil in the world.” This prompts Voltaire to pillory Leibniz as an “out-of-touch scholar is his ivory tower, praising his own egotism and the most tragic events as all being wonderful and necessary.” Voltaire’s 1759 novel, Candide, became so famous that it forever tarnished Leibniz’ reputation. Just as bad, “the critique of Voltaire by certain defenders of Leibniz has distorted the view of the undeniably problematic side of Leibniz’s philosophy.”
Kempe takes his book right up the last letter dated in Leibniz’s own hand, dated November 2, 1716. He died 12 days later.
For anyone who has never read a book dealing with philosophical or mathematical matters, I highly recommend this title. Even those with a Doctor of Philosophy degree (such as myself) will find insights here to gain a renewed appreciation for the much-admired and much-maligned Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. I write this as the seated figure of Voltaire, done in bronze by Houdon in 1790, gazes at me over my left shoulder.
There are 21 B&W illustrations, a glossary of names, 28 pages of Notes, a 13-page Bibliography, and an Index. The font and typeface is not given, but the text is much easier to read than most academically-oriented books. All very satisfying!
The Best of All Possible Worlds: A Life of Leibniz in Seven Pivotal Days, is by W.W. Norton & Co. It lists for $32.50
Image: Leibniz in 1729. Wikimedia Commons.