The Best of All Possible Worlds: A Story of Philosophers, God, and Evil by [Steven Nadler]
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In the spring of 1672, the German philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz arrived in Paris on a furtive diplomatic mission. That project was abandoned quickly, but Leibniz remained in Paris with a singular goal: to get the most out of the city's intellectual and cultural riches. He benefited, above all, from his friendships with France's two greatest philosopher-theologians of the period, Antoine Arnauld and Nicolas de Malebranche. The interactions of these three men would prove of great consequence not only for Leibniz's own philosophy but for the development of modern philosophical and religious thought.
Despite their wildly different views and personalities, the three philosophers shared a single, passionate concern: resolving the problem of evil. Why is it that, in a world created by an allpowerful, all-wise, and infinitely just God, there is sin and suffering? Why do bad things happen to good people, and good things to bad people?
This is the story of a clash between radically divergent worldviews. But it is also a very personal story. At its heart are the dramatic—and often turbulent—relationships between three brilliant and resolute individuals. In this lively and engaging book, Steven Nadler brings to life a debate that obsessed its participants, captivated European intellectuals, and continues to inform our ways of thinking about God, morality, and the world.
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Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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October 28, 2008
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The centerpiece of this intellectual history is a vicious late-17th-century debate between three unlikely combatants: Leibniz, an amateur metaphysicist and German secret agent; Malebranche, a gentle French priest and theologian; and Arnauld, an ill-tempered and opinionated monk. The differences in their positions were slight but important: at stake was the very concept of God with potential implications for the territorial wars between various Catholic Church sects. Although the three men were concentrating on questions that had long been the subject of philosophical inquiry, new scientific discoveries were beginning to challenge the power invested in church and monarchy in what became a watershed moment. Nadler (Rembrandt's Jews) demonstrates why the contentious discussions between the three intellectuals remain relevant: "To the extent that one believes that there is a universal rationality and objectivity to moral and other value judgments, and that the foundations of ethics have nothing to do with what God may or may not want, one has followed in certain seventeenth-century footsteps." Nadler's superb study makes for a larger space for Leibniz, Malebranche and Arnauld alongside such giants of the period as Descartes and Spinoza. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
“Nadler has written a most interesting book. With a rather novelistic flow, it engages the personal circumstances and concepts of three Cartesians.” —M. A. Bertman, Choice
“I can't imagine a better guide to 17th-century philosophical thought. Aimed at the general public, The Best of All Possible Worlds is written simply and clearly, without condescension, flashiness or over-simplification. But it's a demanding book nonetheless, and you need to pay attention. You'll be amply rewarded if you do.”—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post
“Nadler’s superb study makes for a larger space for Leibniz, Malebranche and Arnauld alongside such giants of the period as Descartes and Spinoza.”—Publisher’s Weekly
“In a quietly elegant way, Nadler brings to life three remarkable philosophers and an intellectual world that vanished long ago but whose concerns continue to resonate. Why do good things happen to bad people? Why is the world the way it is? What or who is God? Leibniz, Arnauld, and Malebranche pursued these questions with a passion and intensity that Nadler nimbly captures.” —Matthew Stewart, author of The Courtier and the Heretic: Leibniz, Spinoza, and the Fate of God in the Modern World
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From The Washington Post
From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by Michael Dirda Many are likely to know just two facts about the great polymath Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716): first, that he and Newton independently discovered calculus at roughly the same time, then argued over who should get the credit (Newton won); and, second, that he maintained that ours was "the best of all possible worlds," a phrase much mocked in Voltaire's sparkling philosophical satire Candide. If people know anything further about this German thinker, it's likely to be that he spent his life trying to effect a reconciliation between Protestantism and Catholicism and that he postulated the existence of invisible, atom-like "monads" as the metaphysical building blocks of the universe. Poor Leibniz! For all his genius, he seems destined to be overshadowed by others, whether Newton, Voltaire or Spinoza (whom he visited, admired and disputed with) or, as Steven Nadler shows in The Best of All Possible Worlds, even by half-forgotten French priests. Of course, Nicolas Malebranche (1638-1715) and Antoine Arnauld (1612-1694) weren't simple provincial curates; they were, at least for the generation following the death of Descartes, France's strongest theological thinkers (excepting perhaps Pascal, who strangely enough barely figures in Nadler's book). Both Frenchmen knew the young Leibniz during his long stay in Paris, and all three corresponded with one another for decades afterward. Their lifelong, and sometimes heated, arguments about the nature of God form the basis of this engrossing book. Nadler makes clear the importance of their debate: "What was at stake was nothing less than the meaning of existence, the understanding of why things are as they are. The choice was clear: either the universe is ultimately an arbitrary product, the effect of an indifferent will guided by no objective values and subject to no independent canons of reason or goodness; or it is the result of wisdom, intelligible to its core and informed by a rationality and a sense of value that are, in essence, not very different from our own; or (to mention the most terrifying possibility of all) it simply is, necessary through its causes and transparent to the investigations of metaphysics and science but essentially devoid of any meaning or value whatsoever." The attempt to justify the ways of God to men -- theodicy, a term coined by Leibniz -- lies at the heart of the matter: "Why is there any evil at all in God's creation?" Essentially, Leibniz's answer is: Consider the whole. Explains Nadler, "It is not that everything will turn out for the best for me or for anyone else in particular. Nor is it necessarily the case that any other possible world would have been worse for me or for anyone else. Rather, Leibniz claims that any other possible world is worse overall than this one, regardless of any single person's fortunes in it." What is good for the whole isn't necessarily good for every one of its individual parts or components. As Nadler emphasizes, summarizing Leibniz, "all things are connected and every single aspect of the world makes a contribution to its being the best world." That includes what we call evil. However, Leibniz offers no explanation of just how evil assists the overall goodness of things. (Sometimes he even seems to suggest that it serves to bring the good into greater relief.) We cannot penetrate so far into the Creator's mind or plan. Still "it is inconceivable . . . that an infinitely good and perfect God could choose anything less than the best." This conclusion may satisfy a devout Christian philosopher, but it offers scant consolation when we are in pain, or see the wicked succeed and the worthy fail, or when we face death. Malebranche refined Leibniz's view by imagining that God needed to establish a world that wouldn't require constant adjustment or interference, one that ran on its own, following what He had determined were the simplest, most efficient general principles. Thus, "the actual world is not the most perfect world absolutely speaking; rather, it is only the most perfect world possible relative to those maximally simple laws." In other words, even God compromises. Our world could be better "but only at the cost of the simplicity of the means." Instead, Malebranche's Creator "wills to accomplish as much justice and goodness as He possibly can, not absolutely but consistent with the simplest laws." As Nadler emphasizes, to Malebranche "God . . . is more committed to acting in a general way and to a nature governed by the simplest laws than He is to the well-being of individuals." His "general volitions," as Malebranche dubs these cosmic rules, take precedence over "particular volitions," which are essentially those infrequent violations of the natural order that we call miracles. So it is in the established nature of things for it to rain, and sometimes the parched land receives needed water and sometimes rivers overflow. God isn't going to spend all his time constantly adjusting the weather and a zillion other phenomena just because the results aren't what the locals want or like. What Arnauld objects to in Malebranche (and also in Leibniz) is the supposition that God's nature is like humankind's and that our human intellects can have access to the divine wisdom. God, Arnauld believes, is utterly alien to us -- "a hidden God," to use a Jansenist catchphrase -- and to imagine him making logical decisions, or weighing the pluses and minuses of contrasting worlds, is absurd, nothing but anthropomorphism. (As Spinoza once observed, "a triangle, if it could speak would . . . say that God is eminently triangular, and a circle that God's nature is eminently circular.") In fact, men and women are by their lesser natures incapable of making sense of God or his mysterious ways, and all these presumptuous attempts at theodicy are doomed to failure. God wanted to make the world and so He did, and there's an end to it. In essence, Leibniz believes in God's goodness and wisdom, and Malebranche further emphasizes His rationality, but to Arnauld God is simply pure, omnipotent will. Which God you believe in matters: "Do we inhabit a cosmos that is fundamentally intelligible because its creation is grounded in a rational decision informed by certain absolute values? Is the world's existence the result of a reasonable act of creation and the expression of an infinite wisdom? Or, on the other hand, is the universe ultimately a nonrational, even arbitrary piece of work? . . . Does the origin of things lie in an indifferent action -- an apparently capricious exercise of causal power -- by a Creator who cannot possibly be motivated by reasons because His will finds no reasons independent of itself? In short, does the universe exist by ratio or by voluntas, by wisdom or power?" There's much more detail, and much greater subtlety, in Nadler's account of these differing theological views of God and His universe. (For instance, Spinoza contributes the further twist that "this is not the best of all possible worlds; it is the only possible world.") Of course, Leibniz, Malebranche and Arnauld all posit a Christian God of some sort, and their arguments may seem quaint to rationalists of a largely secular age. But to those who believe in, or simply wonder about, a God-governed universe, these three 17th-century thinkers raise serious and perennially fascinating questions: Is God moral and rational or completely arbitrary, even capricious? Is it wrong to kill only because God says so, or are there absolute moral values (as Kant would argue in establishing the categorical imperative, his variant on the Golden Rule)? And, to be almost bathetic, if God gives us grace to withstand temptation, why does he sometimes fail to give us enough? Besides this new book, Steven Nadler is the author of a magisterial biography of Spinoza, which I have read and recommend, and of impressive-sounding academic books on Arnauld and Malebranche, which I've only heard of. I can't imagine a better guide to 17th-century philosophical thought. Aimed at the general public, The Best of All Possible Worlds is written simply and clearly, without condescension, flashiness or over-simplification. But it's a demanding book nonetheless, and you need to pay attention. You'll be amply rewarded if you do.
Copyright 2008, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Steven Nadler is the William H. Hay II Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he has been teaching since 1988. His books include Spinoza: A Life, winner of the Koret Jewish Book Award in 2000, and Rembrandt’s Jews, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2004.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"The Best of All Possible Worlds is a wonderfully engaging book. Nadler, with his characteristic clarity, has produced a true and rare philosophical page-turner."―Michael Della Rocca, Yale University --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
From the Back Cover
"The Best of All Possible Worlds is a wonderfully engaging book. Nadler, with his characteristic clarity, has produced a true and rare philosophical page-turner."--Michael Della Rocca, Yale University
--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
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Product details
ASIN : B0052Z5W5Q
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux (October 28, 2008)
Publication date : October 28, 2008
Language : English
File size : 1327 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
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Word Wise : Enabled
Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
Print length : 313 pages
Best Sellers Rank: #482,326 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
#56 in Modern Renaissance Philosophy
#125 in Biographies of Philosophers (Kindle Store)
#204 in History & Surveys of Philosophy
Customer Reviews: 4.4 out of 5 stars 28 ratings
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possible worlds best of all possible world is the best steven nadler philosophy spinoza particular philosophers century philosophical catholic descartes theodicy view among intellectual period questions radical rationality
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toronto
5.0 out of 5 stars the best of all possible books on this subject
Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2013
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This is a brilliant book, drawn from Nadler's extensive works on Spinoza, Malebranche, and so on. It is a model of what a book like this should be: thematically tight, beautifully written, and something that enables the reader to plunge into what seems to be a horribly esoteric subject (possible worlds is a hot topic in many areas). Like "The Courtier and the Heretic" it is one of a few books that weaves together philosophy and personal history in a very readable way. It is true that the reader needs to have some background in the period (some familiarity on a basic level with Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz; as well as some basic acquaintance with Lutheran/Catholic debates over the status of transubstantion), but not a huge amount (in fact, one of the benefits of a background in the period is to increase one's appreciation of how Nadler is able to condense and describe the most difficult philosophy in such deft ways (the three or four pages on Spinoza are a marvel of compression)). While the book's main theme is possible worlds, it very quickly escalates into the nature of rationality, the ontological status of ethical rules, the nature of evil (the theodicy problem) and so on. Every turn of the argument, which appears on the surface to be about obscure 17th century discussions of faith and grace, raises a raft of contemporary questions.
This period (the 1670s-1710s) is generally understudied (though it has revived over the past few years with the controversy over Jonathan Israel's work on the Radical Enlightenment). Paul Hazard's masterpiece, the European Mind, from a long time ago covers this terrain (supplemented more recently by Margaret Jacob, and at least the first volume of Israel's trilogy, Radical Enlightenment). There is also a Cambridge Companion to Malebranche (edited by Nadler), which can be recommended.
One of the interesting sidelights in this book that Nadler doesn't develop is the connection between Malebranche's views on God and the tension between the requirements of simplicity/fecundity, and the debate over Darwinism.
No praise is too high for this book.
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David E. Rockett
5.0 out of 5 stars Really...God's Best Possible World?
Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2020
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Turns out, author Stephen King persuaded me to read The Best of All Worlds...inadvertently! I heard first of Leibniz per the Newton-calculus debate...following up on this amazing Polymath (likely Wikipedia?) stumbling upon his Theodicy. This was extra gravy since I'm theologically minded. My Amazon book search brought me to Nadler's book. I sat on it for several years, only to watch King's 11-22-'63 book TV series, a time travel where the foiled assassination of JFK does not turn out as great as you'd expect. Of course, foiling the worst of history (Hitler, Stalin, Mao) would for certain make all things better...right? [Gotta watch Kings 11-22-'63 TV "Theodicy Series"!]
After reading and marking Nadler's wonderful book, I'd looked forward to writing a great review. But after reading the reviews above...I can NOT improve on them. It was...IS a great book and they reviewed it well. Don't miss it...you won't be sorry!
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New Prepper
5.0 out of 5 stars Possible Dedicatory Book to local library.
Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2018
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There seems to have been a mix-up in my order. I ordered one copy and got two. I received an email telling me that this book's delivery estimate had changed from today to Thursday. I received one yesterday and one today. I may dedicate the second copy to the Mt. Carmel Public Library to my Uncle Warren Altomare who was the Voice of Mt. Carmel's Tornado Football team and was a member of the Lion's Club.
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Emilee
5.0 out of 5 stars Exciting Read
Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2014
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This book was a required reading for a Modern Philosophy class that I took. Normally, required readings are just a drag to get through but this work was engaging all the way front to back. Steven Nadler is a very good story teller but he is still able to convey interesting insights onto the lives of Spinoza, Leibniz, etc. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in philosophy and desires to know more about the inter-workings of philosophers' lives and wants to learn about lesser known philosophers like Malebranche and Spinoza. The book is exciting and yet extremely informative and engaging with the mind.
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a reader
5.0 out of 5 stars very good history
Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2009
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I read many of these primary sources many years ago as a philosophy major. Nadler has done a superb job of weaving philosophy, history, biography into an immensely good read. He shows relations among the philosphers he covers and their arguments that I never noticed before. I sell most of the books I buy on Amazon after I read them, but this one is a keeper.
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Michael
3.0 out of 5 stars comprehensive
Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2013
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Many facts and connections between philosophers; the author's grasp of times and places is beyond impressive, but he offers few insights.
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Avinesh
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2014
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A bit long winded but still a good introduction to mostly Leibniz and rather little on Voltaire or others.
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Anne, London
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic for researching a book on the morality of AI and the metaverse
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 26, 2022
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Wish there was more debate like this now (maybe without the fear of death)
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The Best of All Possible Worlds: A Story of Philosophers, God, and Evil
Steven Nadler
3.88
137 ratings27 reviews
In the spring of 1672, the German philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz arrived in Paris on a furtive diplomatic mission. That project was abandoned quickly, but Leibniz remained in Paris with a singular goal: to get the most out of the city’s intellectual and cultural riches. He benefited, above all, from his friendships with France’s two greatest philosopher-theologians of the period, Antoine Arnauld and Nicolas de Malebranche. The interactions of these three men would prove of great consequence not only for Leibniz’s own philosophy but for the development of modern philosophical and religious thought. Despite their wildly different views and personalities, the three philosophers shared a single, passionate concern: resolving the problem of evil. Why is it that, in a world created by an allpowerful, all-wise, and infinitely just God, there is sin and suffering? Why do bad things happen to good people, and good things to bad people? This is the story of a clash between radically divergent worldviews. But it is also a very personal story. At its heart are the dramatic—and often turbulent—relationships between three brilliant and resolute individuals. In this lively and engaging book, Steven Nadler brings to life a debate that obsessed its participants, captivated European intellectuals, and continues to inform our ways of thinking about God, morality, and the world.
GenresPhilosophyHistoryNonfictionBiographyReligionGodTheology
320 pages, Hardcover
First published October 28, 2008
Original title
The Best of All Possible Worlds: A Story of Philosophers, God, and Evil
This edition
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320 pages, Hardcover
Published
October 28, 2008 by Farrar Straus Giroux
Community Reviews
3.88
Noah Goats
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October 3, 2020
This book is a reminder that many of the things we care about today, issues that are flash points that lead to fierce debates and destroyed friendships, will likely seem meaningless to future generations. The intellectual struggle to explain why god acts the way he does, and why he created the earth the way he did – this epic debate between Leibniz, Malebranche, and Arnauld – can elicit nothing more from the reader than a shrug today. Nadler does a good job of telling the story and explaining the issues... but really, who cares anymore?
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Kristopher
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January 12, 2009
A fascinating, brilliantly researched, fun read on what might be one of the most interesting time periods in philosophy. Nadler does a masterful job of making accessible the complex philosophical approaches of three lesser-known, but important figures of the 17th century, placing the debate firmly in a broader socio-historical context. While having a background in (at least Descartes, maybe the early-modern period more broadly) made this a quick read, I could see that not having familiarity with the issues might make this slightly less accessible, but the extensive and insightful end-notes, I think aid in both understanding and in providing options for further research/reading once the book is complete. Furthermore, Nadler does a nice job in showing how the issues about which these theological-philosophers wrestled are still pertinent to philosophers, theologians, and everyone else to this day, effectively pointing out that this endeavor is not merely a pedantic anachronism. Absolutely wonderful.
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Drink up
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August 23, 2017
I stopped in this book. It became too complicated for me, those philosophical theories. I found the first part very interesting, the life history of Liebniz, how he ended up in Paris and got to know Malebranche and his work there. Then followed a description of the life and thinking of Malebranche, which I also found interesting. After that the book was mainly about the thoughts of these people, their (written) discussions, etc. I could no longer agree with this, and after having left the book for a while, I made an attempt to continue in it. reading, I have now decided to stop, I better spend my reading time on something that interests me.
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Joe
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December 15, 2008
A clear, concise and accessible overview of one of the more interesting discussions in early modern philosophy and theology - the nature of God (voluntarist, rational, or other), and the possibility of divine justice. A background in the period wouldn't hurt (particularly Descartes and an understanding of the Reformation and its aftereffects), but isn't necessary to appreciate Nadler's work. The footnotes are generally excellent and provide a good opportunity for cross-referencing or further reading (if desired). A deeper discussion of theodicy might have been appreciated, and it seemed as though the Spinozan 'threat' to the work of Leibniz, Malebranche and Arnauld could have been pursued further. However, aside from this, a very enjoyable read, and highly recommended.
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Rick
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February 21, 2014
If you like 17th century European politics, philosophy, and theology...and who doesn't?...then you will like this book. Arguments about the meaning of existence dominated the writings of Leibniz, Spinoza, Malebranche, and Arnauld, rationalists who tried to explain the will and power of God. For example, Spinoza's God was one with Nature and willed the world into existence out of necessity, in a kind of deterministic causality. Leibniz's God exercised free will in the creation of the "best of all possible worlds," chosen from an infinite number of others. Enter Malebranche and Arnauld and a host of other players and you have a dynamic interplay of ideas. What's not to like?
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Bugra Davutluoglu
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April 6, 2023
The three intelligent and different temperamental youths of the society have a heated argument about the most heated issue of the period. Over time, a spontaneous audience is formed. Now each of them has their supporters and supporters and they watch excitedly who will be right.
Claims, objections, rebuttals...
Then Spinoza gets involved. First a deep silence, then taunts and accusations far beyond the limits of gentlemanly...
But this does not change the result; The real owner of the place and the subject is Spinoza. :)
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Batumar
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February 5, 2016
Themes such as "God's grace" or "God's freedom at the moment of the creation of the world" would seem far from our interests, far from contemporary problems. However, they still concern us. They will always concern us. Whether we are believers or not. When the lights go out in the evening and we close our eyelids, we are alone with our god, however we think of it, and we can understand why great minds like these have spent their lives racking their brains over these issues. Nadler is always an excellent storyteller, as well as a historian of philosophy expert on these authors. It is therefore worthwhile, for fans of the genre, to make an effort to follow the disputes between Leibniz, Malebranche and Arnaud, with Spinoza in the background siding with whoever we find more convincing.
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Leigh
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January 24, 2015
If you like reading about the history of philosophy, this is a great book. It presents the history of ideas, and the strange ways that thoughts come about. If you're not interested in the subject material, this book will not make you interested in it however. If you are new to philosophy, then this book will definitely drag in places where the author goes into depth about what these philosophers were arguing. As a grad student in the philosophy of religion, this was fascinating and enjoyable. It was outside of the focus of my field, in that I rarely work with the history and pattern of how ideas come about, which made it a "for fun" read for me.
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James
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February 18, 2019
I took away a star because it isn't an easy read. In fact, I got so bogged down that I went to the index and found what I wanted to focus on (evil) and read the pages relevant to it. However, I don't want to diminish the effort that the author, a philosophy professor, has put into this book; it may have started as a dissertation, considering the extensive research as revealed in the notes and bibliography. The milieu--late-17th to early-18th-century Europe--being written about was a cauldron of religious and philosophical ideas unleashed by the Reformation and the Enlightenment, so bravo to the author for keeping the page numbering right at 300, including notes, bibliography, acknowledgments and index. A philosophy student, though, would appreciate this more than I did.
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Brian Watson
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July 19, 2019
If you want an introduction to some of the most important thinkers of the late seventeenth century, this book is for you. Now, that might not seem like an interesting book, but Nadler, an expert in this area, makes the subject come a live. He tells the story of Leibniz, Arnauld, and Malebranche in such a way that the differing views on God and evil held by these philosophers creates a fascinating drama. (He also includes a chapter on Spinoza, whose shadow rested on other philosophers of that era.) I read the book for information on Leibniz, but I'm glad I encountered these other thinkers along the way.
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