LEIBNIZ'S BEST WORLD CLAIM RESTRUCTURED

Almost uniquely among philosophers, Gottfried Leibniz tried to reason from God's nature to a description of the physical world. Here, Lane emphasizes that Leibniz's rationale was clear: "This is the cause of the existence of the best: that his wisdom makes it known to God, his goodness makes him choose it, and his power lets him produce it." Lane also highlights how this best world claim of Leibniz was restructured. According to him, the philosopher did not see richness of phenomena, or "quantity of reality," in the mere bulk or mass of a world's phenomena, but rather in the diversity and complexity of physical forms or modes of being.