OPTIMISM

In Moral Philosophy and Theology, the system which regards physical and moral evil as elements of the universal order of things; so that everything is good, viewed in relation to the whole; or, in the ordinary phrase, in which the doctrine is expre ed, "all is for the best." This system was justified, with philosophical inductions, by Leibnitz, in his Thcodicea (which see), and is popularly illustrated by Pope, in his E ay on Man; but it is best known (as far as the name is concerned) by the irony of Voltaire, in his celebrated romance of Candide. The optimism of Leibnitz was based on the following trilemma: If this world be not the best po ible, God must either — 1, not have known how to make a better; 2, not have been able; 3, not have chosen. The first position contradicts his omniscience,the second his omnipotence, the third his benevolence. (See Creuier; Ecibnitzii Doctrina de Mundo Optimo, Lips. 1795.) [s. 868]