HPP Talk, 10th May: Paul Lodge

On 10th May Paul Lodge delivered a talk entitled 'Still the Best of all Possible Worlds after All these Years?' at the 2017-2018 Humane Philosophy Project-Ian Ramsey Centre seminar series on God, Good and Evil in a Scientific Age.

Abstract: In this talk I examine Leibniz's much ridiculed claim that this is the best of all possible worlds. As well as clearing up a number of popular misconceptions regarding Leibniz's defence of the thesis, I consider whether a demythologised version of his view may be of continuing relevance.

Paul Lodge is Professor of Philosophy at Oxford University and a Fellow of Mansfield College. His published research is focussed on Early Modern Philosophy - especially that of G. W. Leibniz. He is author of numerous articles on Leibniz and translator and editor of The Leibniz-De Volder Correspondence (Yale, 2013).He also has significant interests in later German philosophy (particularly Martin Heidegger), British Idealism (particularly T. H. Green), modern Jewish Philosophy, the foundations of epistemic and ethical normativity, and the relationships between philosophy, theology, and religion.