文档介绍：panions Online ? Cambridge University Press, 2006NICHOLAS JOLLEY 1 Introduction Many people first came across the name "Leibniz" when reading Voltaire's Candide, and the encounter is not likely to inspire confi- dence in Leibniz as a great philosopher. In Voltaire's biting satire, the optimism of Doctor Pangloss - whose character is based either on Leibniz himself or on his disciples - appears as a foolish and almost placent response to the evils of our world. The reader cannot help but sympathize with Candide's rhetorical question: "If this is the best of all possible worlds, . . . what can the rest be like?"= Even initial exposure to Leibniz's own texts is not always encourag- ing. Perhaps the most widely read of Leibniz's works is the Mo- nadology, and although, in many respects, a brilliant summary of his final metaphysical views, it is not the best introduction to his philoso- phy. It is natural to feel, as Bertrand Russell once did, that we are presented with "a kind of metaphysical fairy tale, coherent perhaps, but wholly arbitrary" ;"art of the problem is that the fairy tale meta- physics is presented to us in a "take it or leave it" manner with little in the way of sustained argument. Initially, then, Leibniz's reputation as a philosophical genius of the first rank may strike us as puzzling. Deeper acquaintance with Leibniz's work should serve to dispel these doubts. Leibniz did indeed hold that this is the best of all possible worlds, but this thesis is not placent nonsense that it appears to be. A little reflection shows that it is a fairly natural position to take up in response to problems of philosophical theol- ogy. For if God is essentially good, then it is difficult - but not impossible - to escape the conclusion that the world that he created must be the best of those alternatives available to him. Moreover, and more importantly, Leibniz's apparatus of possible worlds pro- vides pelling and influential framework for tackling deep prob- panions