An idea · Early Modern · first attested 1710
Best of All Possible Worlds
A perfect God chose this world; therefore it is the best one possible.
Leibniz's theodicy. Among the infinity of logically possible worlds, God necessarily chose the best – the one that joins the greatest richness of being to the greatest order. Evil exists because removing it would have removed more good than it cost. The view was savaged by Voltaire's Candide after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake.