
The Best of All Possible Worlds
A Life of Leibniz in Seven Pivotal Days
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Narrated by:
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Jonathan Todd Ross
About this listen
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a "universal genius" who ranged across many fields and made breakthroughs in most of them. Leibniz invented calculus (independently from Isaac Newton), conceptualized the modern computer, and developed the famous thesis that the existing world is the best that God could have created.
Historian and Leibniz expert Michael Kempe takes us on a journey into the mind of a man whose contributions are perhaps without parallel in human history. Structured around seven crucial days in Leibniz's life, Kempe's account allows us to observe him in the act of thinking and creating, and gives us a deeper understanding of his broad-reaching intellectual endeavors. On October 29, 1675, he is in Paris, diligently working from his bed amid a sea of notes, and committing the integral symbol—the basis of his calculus—to paper. On April 17, 1703, Leibniz is in Berlin, writing a letter reporting that a Jesuit priest living in China has discovered how to use Leibniz's binary number system to decipher an ancient Chinese system of writing. One day in August 1714, Leibniz enjoys a Viennese coffee while drawing new connections among ontology and biology and mathematics.
The Best of All Possible Worlds transports us to an age defined by rational optimism and a belief in progress, and will endure as one of the few authoritative accounts of Leibniz's life.
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Paul Dirac (1902 - 1984) was a brilliant mathematician and a 1933 Nobel laureate whose work ranks alongside that of Albert Einstein and Sir Isaac Newton. Although not as well-known as his famous contemporaries Werner Heisenberg and Richard Feynman, his influence on the course of physics was immense. His landmark book, The Principles of Quantum Mechanics, introduced that new science to the world and his "Dirac equation" was the first theory to reconcile special relativity and quantum mechanics.
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Meet the quantum genius!
- By LaPazBC on 05-19-17
By: Helge Kragh
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American Oasis
- Finding the Future in the Cities of the Southwest
- By: Kyle Paoletta
- Narrated by: Andrew Eiden
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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An expansive and revelatory historical exploration of the multicultural, water-seeking, land-destroying settlers of the most arid corner of North America, arguing that in order to know where the United States is going in the era of mass migration and climate crisis we must understand where the Southwest has already been.
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Historical context for SW sprawl
- By Jesse P on 02-07-25
By: Kyle Paoletta
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Boutwell
- Radical Republican and Champion of Democracy
- By: Jeffrey Boutwell
- Narrated by: Perry Daniels
- Length: 13 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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During his seven-decade career in public life, George Sewall Boutwell sought to "redeem America's promise" of racial equality, economic equity, and the principled use of American power abroad. From 1840 to 1905, Boutwell was at the center of efforts to abolish slavery, establish the Republican Party, assist President Lincoln in funding the Union war effort, facilitate Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, impeach President Andrew Johnson, and frame and enact the Fourteenth and Fifteenth civil rights amendments.
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Interesting historical context, but . . .
- By Janis Biksa on 04-02-25
By: Jeffrey Boutwell
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The Age of Choice
- A History of Freedom in Modern Life
- By: Sophia Rosenfeld
- Narrated by: Greg D. Barnett
- Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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The Age of Choice tells the long history of the invention of choice as the defining feature of modern freedom. Taking listeners from the seventeenth century to today, Sophia Rosenfeld describes how the early modern world witnessed the simultaneous rise of shopping as an activity and religious freedom as a matter of being able to pick one's convictions. Similarly, she traces the history of choice in romantic life, politics, and the ideals of human rights. Throughout, she pays particular attention to the lives of women, who have frequently been the drivers of this change.
By: Sophia Rosenfeld
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Lawless Republic
- By: Josiah Osgood
- Narrated by: David Holt
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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In its final decades, the Roman Republic was engulfed by a crime wave. An epidemic of extortions, murders, and acts of insurrection tested the court system's capacity to maintain order. As case after case filled the docket, an ambitious young lawyer named Cicero seized every opportunity to litigate, forging a reputation as a master debater with a bright future in politics. In Lawless Republic, historian Josiah Osgood recounts the legendary orator's ascent and fall, and his pivotal role in the republic's lurch toward autocracy.
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Entertaining and educational
- By N. Mammen on 02-25-25
By: Josiah Osgood
What listeners say about The Best of All Possible Worlds
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- JJ
- 01-22-25
Great bio of Leibniz
I'm a bit of a Leibniz geek. This is a creative Leibniz bio depicting not only the thinker but the MAN. He was quite the character. Grab this one.
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