
The Best of All Possible Worlds
A Life of Leibniz in Seven Pivotal Days
Michael Kempe(Author)
WW Norton & Co (Publisher)
Published on 12. November 2024
Book
Hardback
304 pages
978-1-324-09394-7 (ISBN)
Description
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) was the Benjamin Franklin of Europe, a "universal genius" who ranged across many fields and made breakthroughs in most of them. Leibniz invented calculus (independently from Isaac Newton), conceptualized the modern computer, and developed the famous thesis that the existing world is the best that God could have created.
In The Best of All Possible Worlds, historian and Leibniz expert Michael Kempe takes us on a journey into the mind and inventions of a man whose contributions are perhaps without parallel in human history. Structured around seven crucial days in Leibniz's life, Kempe's account allows us to observe him in the act of thinking and creating, and gives us a deeper understanding of his broad-reaching intellectual endeavors. On October 29, 1675, we find him in Paris, diligently working from his bed amid a sea of notes, and committing the integral symbol-the basis of his calculus-to paper. On April 17, 1703, Leibniz is in Berlin, writing a letter reporting that a Jesuit priest living in China has discovered how to use Leibniz's binary number system to decipher an ancient Chinese system of writing. One day in August 1714, Leibniz enjoys a Viennese coffee while drawing new connections among ontology and biology and mathematics.
The Best of All Possible Worlds transports us to an age defined by rational optimism and a belief in progress, and will endure as one of the few authoritative accounts of Leibniz's life available in English.
In The Best of All Possible Worlds, historian and Leibniz expert Michael Kempe takes us on a journey into the mind and inventions of a man whose contributions are perhaps without parallel in human history. Structured around seven crucial days in Leibniz's life, Kempe's account allows us to observe him in the act of thinking and creating, and gives us a deeper understanding of his broad-reaching intellectual endeavors. On October 29, 1675, we find him in Paris, diligently working from his bed amid a sea of notes, and committing the integral symbol-the basis of his calculus-to paper. On April 17, 1703, Leibniz is in Berlin, writing a letter reporting that a Jesuit priest living in China has discovered how to use Leibniz's binary number system to decipher an ancient Chinese system of writing. One day in August 1714, Leibniz enjoys a Viennese coffee while drawing new connections among ontology and biology and mathematics.
The Best of All Possible Worlds transports us to an age defined by rational optimism and a belief in progress, and will endure as one of the few authoritative accounts of Leibniz's life available in English.
Reviews / Votes
"It's hard to imagine how the great German polymath Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz packed his dizzying array of accomplishments, inventions, wanderings, and insights into one life. Now renowned intellectual historian and director of the Leibniz Archives Michael Kempe has distilled that wonderous life into a mere seven days. With humor, intelligence, and lively prose, Kempe carefully builds these seven slices of life into a breathtaking portrait of one of the most fascinating and impactful minds of the early modern world." -- William Egginton, author of The Rigor of Angels: Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality "A unique biography about one of the world's most brilliant polymaths." -- Kirkus Reviews "[A] first-rate presentation of Leibniz's complex system of ideas and breathes life into a figure of august remoteness... captures the kaleidoscopic quality of Leibniz's thought... Leibniz emerges as a cracked genius, prone to inscrutable philosophical speculations but capable of almost prophetic insights into the future." -- Jeffrey Collins - Wall Street JournalMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
21 images
Dimensions
Height: 231 mm
Width: 150 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-324-09394-7 (9781324093947)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
11/2024
W. W. Norton & Company
€29.99
Available for download
Persons
Michael Kempe is the director of the Leibniz Research Center and the Leibniz-Archiv in Hannover and teaches early modern history at the University of Konstanz. Marshall Yarbrough is a writer, musician, and German-to-English translator. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.