< Chapter 3: Best Possible Selves
the city was struck by a devastating seismic shock: There is now an excellent museum in Lisbon dedicated to all aspects of the 1755 earthquake: The Quake Museum, Rua Cais da Alfândega Velha, 39, 1300-598 Lisbon, Portugal. https://lisbonquake.com/en-GB/learn-and-discover/the-lisbon-earthquake
Catholics blamed the decadence of the Portuguese court; Protestants blamed the decadence of the Catholic faith: Maxwell, K. (2007). The Jesuit and the Jew: The Lisbon earthquake in modern perspective. ReVista: Harvard Review of Latin America, 6(2). https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/the-jesuit-and-the-jew/
Wesley, J. (1756). Serious thoughts occasioned by the earthquake at Lisbon (6th ed.). https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_serious-thoughts-occasio_wesley-john_1756/mode/2up
the ancient Greek poet Hesiod first wrote down the story of Pandora: Hesiod. (1914). Works and days. In Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns and Homerica (lines 40-80). William Heinmann. Retrieved February 27, 2025, from https://scaife.perseus.org/reader/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg002.perseus-eng2:40-80?q=pandora&qk=form. This translation makes the misogyny of Hesiod’s text clear: Pandora here is herself “the gift” given to humanity, an “evil thing” designed to ensnare men.
not a box (pyxis) but a large jar (pithos): thehistorianshut. (2018, January 4). Pandora’s box was actually a jar. The Historian’s Hut. https://thehistorianshut.com/2018/01/03/pandoras-box-was-actually-a-jar/
The ancient Greeks used it in both positive and negative contexts: Later in Hesiod’s own Works and Days, for example, we find ‘The idle man who waits on empty hope, lacking a livelihood, lays to heart mischief-making; it is not a wholesome hope that accompanies a needy man who lolls at ease while he has no sure livelihood.’ Hesiod. (1914). Works and days. In Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns and Homerica (line 500). William Heinmann. https://scaife.perseus.org/reader/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg002.perseus-eng2:500?q=idle%20man%20who%20waits%20on%20empty%20hope&qk=formhttps://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0132%3Acard%3D83
notably the more neutral ‘expectation’ [footnote]: The same used to be true of English, but somewhere along the line hope came to mean a positive expectation by default. It is still somewhat ambivalent in Spanish and Portuguese. See, for example: Draper, P. (2015, May 17). Why “hoping against hope”? English Language & Usage Stack Exchange. https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/246831/why-hoping-against-hope
jjsays77. (2022). Massive confusion: Esperar. r/Spanish, Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/Spanish/comments/ymy8wp/massive_confusion_esperar/?chainedPosts=t3_59vuhe
For others, to renounce it [footnote]: Why do we have worldviews at all? One suggestion is that they give us a grander perspective that allows us to transcend our fear of death: this is called ‘terror management theory’. So the first part of this book was about error management; this one is about terror management.
Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S., & Greenberg, J. (2015). Thirty years of terror management theory. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 52, 1–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.aesp.2015.03.001
attributed to the philosopher Epicurus: It’s not clear that Epicurus was in fact the author of this formulation. See Wikipedia Contributors. (2023). Epicurean paradox. In Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Epicurean_paradox#Attribution_and_variations
hope was one of the Catholic Church’s three theological virtues: The others being faith and charity: The theological virtues. (1993). In Catechism of the Catholic Church. https://www.vatican.va/content/catechism/en/part_three/section_one/chapter_one/article_7/ii_the_theological_virtues.html
[Footnote]: Even in our more secular times, the word ‘hope’ retains a spiritual, even transcendent quality, compared with optimism’s mundanity. Hope began as an article of faith, optimism as an exercise in reason: that’s why this book is about optimism, not hope.
did not get on with her father-in-law: Information about Sophie Charlotte’s life is scarce, particularly in English, but this is a good overview: Sophie Charlotte of Hanover (1668–1705). (2019). In Encyclopedia.com. https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/sophie-charlotte-hanover-1668-1705
supporters of Isaac Newton had accused him: Blank, B. E. (2009). The calculus wars [Review of The Calculus Wars: Newton, Leibniz, and the Greatest Mathematical Clash of All Time, by J. S. Bardi]. Notices of the American Mathematical Society, 56(5). https://www.ams.org/notices/200905/rtx090500602p.pdf
‘you want to know the reason for the reason’: to be sure, this was as related by Sophie Charlotte’s admiring grandson, Frederick II. The full quote, along with a description of her relationship with Leibniz, is in Strickland, L. (2011). Introduction. In Leibniz and the Two Sophies: The Philosophical Correspondence. University of Toronto Press (partially downloadable as a PDF from https://crrs.ca/publications/ov10/).
In a dazzling 1682 paper: Leibniz, G. W. (1682). Unitary principle of optics, catoptrics, and dioptrics. University of California San Diego. http://philosophyfaculty.ucsd.edu/faculty/rutherford/Leibniz/unitary-principle.htm
no matter what prisms or mirrors stood in its way {footnote]: How light ‘knows’ which is the easiest path before it sets off is a problem that had to wait longer for a solution: one answer is to think of light as an extended wave, rather than a discrete particle, so the first part of the wave to encounter the mirror or prism changes direction; the rest of the wave then follows. The Physicist. (2011, August 5). Q: Why does light choose the “path of least time”? Ask a Mathematician / Ask a Physicist. https://www.askamathematician.com/2011/08/q-why-does-light-choose-the-path-of-least-time/
Earlier thinkers, notably Spinoza: Newlands, S. (2023). Spinoza’s modal metaphysics. In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2023). Metaphysics Research Lab, Department of Philosophy, Stanford University. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spinoza-modal/
Dean, A. (2021). Spinoza’s God: Einstein believed in it, but what was it? [Review of Spinoza’s Religion: A New Reading of the Ethics, by C. Carlisle]. Prospect. https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/37996/spinozas-god-einstein-believed-in-it-but-what-was-it
Precisely what he meant by ‘compossible’ has been debated at length by philosophers: Brown, G. (1987). Compossibility, harmony, and perfection in Leibniz. The Philosophical Review, 96(2), 173–203. https://doi.org/10.2307/2185157
Messina, J., & Rutherford, D. (2009). Leibniz on compossibility. Philosophy Compass, 4(6), 962–977. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-9991.2009.00262.x
McDonough, J. K. (2017). Leibniz on Compossibility and Possible Worlds [Review of Leibniz on Compossibility and Possible Worlds, by G. Brown & Y. Chiek]. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. https://ndpr.nd.edu/reviews/leibniz-on-compossibility-and-possible-worlds/
Königsbergers would amuse themselves by trying to find a route for their Sunday walks: You can still try it for yourself, even without visiting Köningsberg: Seven Bridges. (n.d.). Board Game Geek. Retrieved February 26, 2025, from https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/266188/seven-bridges
the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler realised that what was needed was a new ‘geometry of position’: Murtagh, J. (2024, March 9). How a classic bridge-crossing puzzle inspired new math. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-the-seven-bridges-of-koenigsberg-spawned-new-math
Euler, L. (1741). Solutio problematis ad geometriam situs pertinentis. In Euler Archive – All Works. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/euler-works/53/
it shows the Seven Bridges problem to be utterly insoluble [footnote]: Today’s Kaliningrad is a heavily fortified Russian enclave sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania; and the problem has been ‘solved’ by blowing up two bridges. Thieme, A. (2024, February 5). What happened to the seven bridges in Königsberg? Datawrapper Blog. https://blog.datawrapper.de/euler-bridges-konigsberg/
As the philosopher of mathematics James Franklin puts it: Franklin, J. (2003). Leibniz’s solution to the problem of evil. Think, 2(5), 97–101. https://philarchive.org/rec/FRALST
‘the simplest in hypotheses and richest in phenomena’: Leibniz wrote this in 1686, in a letter to the theologian Antoine Arnauld – an indication of just how long he had been thinking about it before publishing Theodicy in 1710 – but it was not published until 1846, in a posthumous book: Leibniz, G. W. (1846). That God does nothing which is not orderly, and that it is not even possible to conceive of events which are not regular. In Discourse on Metaphysics. https://web.archive.org/web/20060611040020/https://www.anselm.edu/homepage/dbanach/Leibniz-Discourse.htm#VI
[Theodicy] was a densely argued work that brought Leibniz’s lifelong work in metaphysics to a culmination: I don’t recommend reading it unless you have a particular interest in 18th-century metaphysics, except for the final section (beginning with paragraph 405 of the Project Gutenberg transcription, which describes how a dreaming seeker after truth visits a celestial palace, whose halls ‘rose in a pyramid, becoming even more beautiful as one mounted towards the apex, and representing more beautiful worlds. Finally they reached the highest one which completed the pyramid, and which was the most beautiful of all’ – the best of all possible worlds. Leibniz, G. W. (1951). Theodicy. Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited. https://gutenberg.org/cache/epub/17147/pg17147-images.html (Original work published 1710)
As McDonough writes: McDonough, J. K. (2022, February 9). Leibniz and the miracle creed behind modern physics. IAI TV. https://iai.tv/articles/leibniz-and-the-miracle-creed-behind-modern-physics-auid-2047
we can’t make out the grand scheme of things: van der Lugt, M. (2021). Dark matters: Pessimism and the problem of suffering. Princeton University Press. https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691206622/dark-matters
For Leibniz’s idea to make its mark, it would have to be well received in either London or Paris: For a comprehensive overview of its reception, see: Strickland, L. (2019). Staying optimistic: The trials and tribulations of Leibnizian optimism. Journal of Modern Philosophy, 1(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.32881/jomp.3
For a still more comprehensive overview, see: Caro, H. D. (2014). The best of all possible worlds? Leibniz’s optimism and its critics 1710-1755 [Dissertation]. https://doi.org/10.18452/17054
tarnishing Leibniz’s reputation [footnote]: The consensus today is that the two men developed their ideas independently: given Leibniz’s other achievements, that’s perfectly plausible. Nonetheless, sniping continues between rival factions even now.
Alexander Pope suggested in his 1733 epic poem, An Essay on Man: Jones, T. (n.d.). On Pope’s philosophical poem: ‘An essay on man’ [Interview]. In 3:16. Retrieved February 27, 2025, from https://www.3-16am.co.uk/articles/on-pope-s-philosophical-poem-an-essay-on-man.
a review of Theodicy appeared in the influential Journal de Trévoux: Essais de theodicée, sur la bonté de Dieu, la liberté de l’homme, et l’origine du mal, par M. Leibniz. (1737). [Review of Theodicy, by G. W. Leibniz]. Mémoires pour l’histoire des sciences & des beaux arts. https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Memoires_pour_l_histoire_des_sciences_et/nikEAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA215&printsec=frontcover
skilfully, and theologically as well as geometrically, the system of Optimum, or Optimism [correction]: The word ‘geometrically’ was omitted in the first printing of The Bright Side.
[Voltaire’s] romantic and intellectual partner… Émilie du Châtelet: David Bodanis described their relationship and rivalry brilliantly in his book Passionate Minds: Bodanis, D. (2006). Passionate minds: The great Enlightenment love affair (1st ed.). Little, Brown. https://www.davidbodanis.com/books/passionate-minds/
his 180-line Poème sur le désastre de Lisbonne: Voltaire & McCabe, J. (1912). Poem on the Lisbon disaster. In Toleration and Other Essays. The Knickerbocker Press. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Toleration_and_other_essays/Poem_on_the_Lisbon_Disaster (Original work published 1756)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote a widely circulated letter: Dynes, R. R. (2000). The dialogue between Voltaire and Rousseau on the Lisbon earthquake: The emergence of a social science view. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, 18(1), 97–115. https://doi.org/10.1177/028072700001800106
‘all is for the best, in this best of all possible worlds’: This is how Pangloss’s catchphrase is often presented, including in such respectable sources as Encyclopædia Britannica, and that’s how I’ve chosen to reproduce it, for clarity. Though his sentiment is clear, Pangloss actually says ‘all is for the best’ and ‘this best of all possible worlds’ in different places in the text.
Voltaire. (1918). Candide. Boni & Liveright. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/19942/19942-h/19942-h.htm (Original work published 1759)
Dillon, S. (2019). Candide | Introduction & Summary. In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Candide-by-Voltaire
Leibniz scholar Lloyd Strickland argues: Strickland, L. (2017). How Leibniz would have responded to the Lisbon earthquake. In L. Strickland, E. Vynckier, & J. Weckend (Eds.), Tercentenary Essays on the Philosophy and Science of Leibniz (pp. 257–278). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-38830-4_11
almost a god among men [footnote]: Voltaire’s 1752 short story ‘Micromégas’ tells of a giant, eight leagues tall and similarly endowed with intellect, who travels from the star Sirius to visit Earth. Textual clues suggest strongly that he’s meant to be Newton.
Roberts, A. (2023, May 2). On “Micromégas” (1752). Adam’s Notebook. https://medium.com/adams-notebook/on-microm%C3%A9gas-1752-589beb774ee2. Hosted on Medium.
almost everyone who recognises the allusion cites Candide – not Leibniz [footnote]: Another character, Martin, concludes after being abused and abandoned by his family that this must be the worst of all possible worlds. The Journal de Trévoux again coined le mot juste in its review: pessimiste.
in which he slated not just Leibniz’s solution: Voltaire. (2011). A pocket philosophical dictionary (pp. 44–49). Oxford University Press. https://openlibrary.org/works/OL16102102W/A_Pocket_Philosophical_Dictionary (Original work published 1764)
an earlier visit to Pope’s idyllic garden in London: Wilkie, K. (2016, March 24). Rooted to the plot: What can Voltaire’s ‘Candide’ teach gardeners? Financial Times. https://www.ft.com/content/27cb998e-ed01-11e5-bb79-2303682345c8
merely ‘convicts playing with their chains’: Voltaire. (2011). A pocket philosophical dictionary (p. 49). Oxford University Press. https://openlibrary.org/works/OL16102102W/A_Pocket_Philosophical_Dictionary (Original work published 1764)
puzzling questions in so-called ‘modal’ logic: Ballarin, R. (2023). Modern origins of modal logic. In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2023/entries/logic-modal-origins/
Some philosophers claim there’s no reason to think of these possible worlds as any less real than ours; others scoff at the very idea: Menzel, C. (2024). Possible worlds. In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2024/entries/possible-worlds/#ConceptionsOfPWs
This indeterminacy doesn’t make a lot of sense to us: Ball, P. (2022, October 11). How quantum weirdness shapes our universe. Prospect. https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/technology/60170/how-quantum-weirdness-shapes-our-universe
Perhaps because it’s the way we already think about the world: Andersen, T. (2023, June 15). Multiple worlds has been given artistic impetus by physics. Aeon. https://aeon.co/essays/multiple-worlds-has-been-given-artistic-impetus-by-physics
a novel, written by a retired civil servant named Ts’ui Pên, which includes every possible outcome: Borges, J. L. (n.d.). The garden of forking paths. Genius. Retrieved March 3, 2025, from https://genius.com/17290098 (Original work published 1941)
by the 1960s Star Trek was making forays into the ‘mirror universe’: Mirror universe. (n.d.). In Memory Alpha. Fandom. Retrieved March 3, 2025, from https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Mirror_universe
where the dinosaurs weren’t wiped out by a meteorite, but developed a sophisticated culture: West of Eden wiki. (n.d.). Fandom. Retrieved March 3, 2025, from https://west-of-eden.fandom.com/wiki/West_of_Eden_Wiki. I haven’t read it in decades, so don’t take my reference to it as a recommendation.
long brown hair in one, and a blonde pixie cut in the other: Ross, A. (2023, May 17). With A $6,000 international haircut, we’ve officially reached *peak* Gwyneth Paltrow. The Zoe Report. https://www.thezoereport.com/culture/gwyneth-paltrow-sliding-doors-haircut
the default setting for Marvel’s endless spandex melodramas and the framing metaphor for the Oscar-winning oddity Everything Everywhere All at Once [footnote]: The ultimate inspiration for most of these stories is the ‘many worlds’ interpretation of quantum theory; the collection of universes is often referred to as the ‘multiverse’, although that has a specific, and different, meaning in modern cosmology.
Sullivan, W. (2023, March 14). The science behind the multiverse in ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once.’ Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-science-behind-the-multiverse-in-everything-everywhere-all-at-once-180981796/
Abad-Santos, A. (2022, April 15). Everything Everywhere All At Once, explained by a quantum physicist. Vox. https://www.vox.com/culture/23024945/everything-everywhere-all-at-once-multiverse-explained-quantum-physicist
lovingly detailed maps of imaginary countries; memes depicting different branches of the multiverse and ‘speculative zoology’ contests
imaginary countries: r/AlternateHistory. (n.d.). Reddit. Retrieved March 3, 2025, from https://www.reddit.com/r/AlternateHistory/
different branches: Hamilton, P. (2022). If the multiverse is real. In Know Your Meme. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/if-the-multiverse-is-real
speculative zoology: r/SpeculativeZoology. (n.d.). Reddit. Retrieved March 3, 2025, from https://www.reddit.com/r/SpeculativeZoology/
in sitcoms ranging from The Simpsons to Friends. Or Frasier
‘Into the Homer-verse’: Treehouse of Horror XXXI. (2020). In Simpsons Wiki. Fandom. https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/Treehouse_of_Horror_XXXI
The One That Could Have Been: Hedash, K. (2019, July 28). Friends’ alternate reality explained. ScreenRant. https://screenrant.com/friends-alternate-reality-one-could-been-explained/
Sliding Frasiers: Frasier online episode guide: Episode 8.12 – Sliding Frasiers. (n.d.). In Frasier Online. Retrieved March 3, 2025, from https://www.frasieronline.co.uk/episodeguide/season8/ep12.htm
There are also fan theories that these shows are always set in a multiverse, with every episode taking place in a different universe: [The Simpsons] Every Simpsons episode takes place in a different universe. (2016, January 19). r/FanTheories, Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/FanTheories/comments/41oy5j/the_simpsons_every_simpsons_episode_takes_place/
Thefriendszonepod. (2018, June 5). Each episode of “Friends” actually takes place in a series of different realities, and features variations of the six main characters from different parallel universes. r/FanTheories, Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/FanTheories/comments/8orzno/each_episode_of_friends_actually_takes_place_in_a/
What’s more, there are alternate histories about these programmes: for example, in which The Simpsons was cancelled in 1993: Cuphead2006. (2023, February 22). The Simpsons (an honorable retelling). Alternative History; Fandom. https://althistory.fandom.com/wiki/The_Simpsons_(An_Honorable_Retelling)or in which Frasier gave rise to numerous spin-off shows: Lindbergh, B. (2017, November 24). We’re listening: Exploring Frasierverse, an incredible internet rabbit hole of fictional spinoffs. The Ringer. https://www.theringer.com/2017/11/24/tv/frasier-creator-on-frasierverse-fictional-universe