The Best of All Possible Biographies?
The Best of All Possible Worlds: A Life of Leibniz in Seven Pivotal Days by Michael Kempe, translated by Marshall Yarbrough (W.W. Norton & Co., 2024)
Reviewed by Elizabeth Stice
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who lived from 1646 to 1716, was a remarkable person. He devised the integral sign and created infinitesimal calculus. He did extensive work with the binary numeral system, pioneered binary algebra, and used binary to program a mechanical calculating machine he invented. He penned metaphysical and theological treatises. He proposed a finite and old earth and believed that organic life continued to develop over time (much like evolution). He created mills and mining technology. He corresponded with figures around the globe. He was a “China expert” intent on bringing silkworms to Europe and a court official in Vienna and Hanover and for Peter I of Russia, among other things. He was a true polymath, with wide-ranging knowledge and achievements. And he is largely forgotten in the English-speaking world.
Our lack of knowledge and respect for Leibniz among English-speakers is a testament to the power of print and the importance of reputation. Newton and Leibniz independently created versions of calculus at essentially the same time, but Newton accused Leibniz of plagiarism and won the battle of words that played out in the world of letters. No historians side with Newton, but it has not mattered much. Leibniz had a philosophy of rational optimism, which argued that this is the “best of all possible worlds.” That phrase was put into the mouth of the ridiculous Pangloss in Voltaire’s Candide, rendering Leibniz’s philosophy little more than a joke. Never mind that it is a bit more complicated.
The Best of All Possible Worlds excels at familiarizing English-speaking readers with the range of Leibniz’s achievements. This book puts the polymath in clear focus as a subject in his own right and establishes him as more than a footnote in history. Reading through the chapters, one cannot help but be impressed by the remarkable Leibniz. We witness his mind at work and the world in which he lived.
Michael Kempe’s The Best of All Possible Worlds focuses on “seven pivotal days.” The days range from the year 1675 to the year 1716, covering Leibniz’s adult life. This approach allows Kempe to weave together aspects of Leibniz’s personal life and constant traveling with his philosophical, mathematical, and scientific contributions. In each chapter, Kempe sets a scene which provides context. Kempe describes Leibniz’s domestic setting, his attire and diet, his acquaintances, work in various courts, and his correspondence. We see his ideas emerge from his world, though Leibniz’s true self remains somewhat distant, as it did to his peers.
Michael Kempe faces a challenge in The Best of All Possible Worlds. He has to explain enough of Leibniz’s ideas to satisfy readers with varying backgrounds, without losing them in the weeds. Some chapters succeed better than others in this. It is challenging terrain, ranging from monadology to theodicy to calculus to non-Euclidean geometry and beyond. The structure of organizing the chapters by days and setting the scene, building up to the breakthrough of that day also hits and misses. It provides better context, but at times it can be a bit confusing where an individual chapter is going. Though because Leibniz believed all things were interrelated and he was always doing more than one thing at a time, this approach means we are introduced to his “pivotal days” somewhat as he experienced them.
This book will interest any number of people. Those who want to know more about the early days of modern science and the Enlightenment era will find it a good read. Anyone who has heard of Leibniz but only through the lens of Voltaire of Newton should pick it up. Anyone who finds a shortage of books about people who brought us math advancements will enjoy this book. A reader does not need to know about everything in this book in advance to begin it. It is introductory enough that curiosity is all that is required.
The Best of All Possible Worlds offers a vivid description of what genius looks like. Though Leibniz was known for his shabby clothes and out-of-style long black wig, he was not an isolated oddball. He circulated at court and interacted with people of the upper classes. The Best also very clearly demonstrates the importance of the Republic of Letters in Leibniz’s development. His correspondence with other thinkers and missionaries and officials offered him a sounding board, provided useful information, and generally stimulated his mind. He was far from alone in his thoughts. He carried on a truly impressive amount of correspondence until his death. And Leibniz was far from a specialist, like the geniuses in Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, by David Epstein. Leibniz was interested in nearly everything and saw connections between everything. That was both part of his philosophy and his philosophy of life.
Leibniz might remind Americans a bit of Ben Franklin. It is hard to believe that Leibniz wrote and did as much as he did. His life was a testament to “hustle culture” before the term existed. He was a marvel of productivity and a rolling stone, never at rest. Despite living hundreds of years ago, he feels familiar in all of this. Leibniz loved travel and never wanted to settle down. He was always jumping between ideas and people and places. He wanted to seize every opportunity and possibility. This approach to life is relatable to many people today. What is remarkable is that Leibniz outpaced his peers and set the stage for future scientific progress in a number of fields.
The Best of All Possible Worlds offers a more complete, and human, picture of Leibniz to us, out from under the shadows of mockery and accusation. Throughout the book, Kempe emphasizes the value of seeing connections between things. Polymaths like Franklin and Leibniz were never common but they are increasingly uncommon, as the fields of inquiry continue to advance and specialize. The Best of Al Possible Worlds offers us the chance to marvel at Leibniz while it familiarizes us with some of the antecedents of our modern world.
Elizabeth Stice is a professor of history and assistant director of the honors program at Palm Beach Atlantic University. When she can, she reads and writes about World War I and she is the author of Empire Between the Lines: Imperial Culture in British and French Trench Newspapers of the Great War (2023).
