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The best of possible worlds
Wednesday, September 12th, 2007 07:22 pmI've just finished reading a book about Leibniz and Spinoza, which I shall probably comment on in more detail later. One of Leibniz's ideas is that God sets up a kind of database of possible worlds, and then chooses the best one.
This idea normally strikes me as the kind of thing that prompted a student to ask "Did Leibniz eat a lot of rye bread?" but occasionally I think "Yes, this is the best of all possible worlds." I've just been to a party at the Education Department (because I teach some of their MA students) and in the process of getting as pissed as a newt have impressed various people with my computing skills, done some serious "networking" and got a vague promise that as a result of my script-fu, my teaching hours will be reduced. And they gave me a half-full bottle of wine to take back to the office. Mmm, best of all possible worlds.
This idea normally strikes me as the kind of thing that prompted a student to ask "Did Leibniz eat a lot of rye bread?" but occasionally I think "Yes, this is the best of all possible worlds." I've just been to a party at the Education Department (because I teach some of their MA students) and in the process of getting as pissed as a newt have impressed various people with my computing skills, done some serious "networking" and got a vague promise that as a result of my script-fu, my teaching hours will be reduced. And they gave me a half-full bottle of wine to take back to the office. Mmm, best of all possible worlds.
