Joseph Pallattil
The challenging problem being faced by most of the philosophers is the problem of evil. If God is omnibenevolent, omnipotent and omniscient, how do we give explanation for the suffering and injustice in the world? In other words, If God exists, if He created the world, and if that God is good, then where does evil come? One of the greatest representative of 17th century rationalism, a German philosopher, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz is coming with a solution for this problem of evil. Where does evil come? Against this problem he presented the theory of ‘Best of all possible worlds’. Leibniz states the argument in five statements: God has the idea of infinitely many universe; only one of these universe can actually exist; God has reason to choose one thing or another; God is good; therefore, the universe that God chose to exist is the best of all possible worlds. There are infinite ideas of universes in the mind of God. God can only choose one universe from the infinite amount of possible universes. Since God is a perfect existence, and he makes decisions based on reason. Then we can come to the conclusion that existing world, chosen by God, is the best. The universe that God chose to exist is the ‘best of all possible worlds’.
The existence of evil does not necessarily mean this is a worse world. His claim is that evil’s presence creates a better world. According to Leibniz, “it may happen that the evil is accompanied by a greater good”. In other words, Leibniz argued that the contrast provided by evil can result in the construction of a greater good. As Leibniz says, “an imperfection in the part may be required for a perfection in the whole”. The reaction people have from evil can allow them to understand and make decisions that bring about a greater good. God allowed evilness in the world for us to understand goodness which is achieved through contrasting it with evil. Once we understood evil and good, it gives us the ability to produce the “greatest possible good” out of all the goodness. Evil fuels goodness, which leads to a perfect system. Evil is the absence of good.
The philosophical concept presented by Leibniz can be used in our life very practically. If we are able to put into practice this philosophy in our attitude towards our life, it will give us a life full of satisfaction. Satisfaction is a good feeling that we have when we have achieved something or when something that we wanted to happen does happen. Normally, we are craving for something we do not have. We hope for something we could not achieve. But, Leibniz says, content with what we have. Just think this is the best for me. My parents are the best parents I could ever have. My family background, my job and so on are something better gifts for me. Surely we see that there are negatives, limitations, evils in these areas of our life. Nonetheless, our focus on our life must be through positive a spectacles. We should look into our life, family, educational qualification, occupation…etc. with a positive perspective. We need to overcome the evils which we see in our life with good. Consider every bad things in our life as something which lead to good in our life. Every limitation is an opportunity to make our life a better one. Evil motivates us to do more good to overcome the evil itself. Of course, this is a best of all possible worlds.
