A gripping portrait of the man considered the last universal genius that takes us on a mind-expanding journey through the history of ideas
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‘This best of all possible biographies is endlessly informative, but at the same time it unfailingly puts you in a good mood’ Süddeutsche Zeitung
‘Michael Kempe has written the Leibniz biography for our time. It is difficult to even begin to do justice to his rich spirit, but Kempe succeeds’ Daniel Kehlmann, author of 'Tyll'
‘A great idea: to start from individual days on which Leibniz's life and work take a new turn, and ultimately unfold an entire world. A hugely successful biographical feat’ Rüdiger Safranski, author of 'Goethe: Life as a Work of Art'
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Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Aristotle, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. All share the venerable title of polymath – or, more colloquially, ‘Renaissance man.’ Compared to his peers, though, Leibniz has all but disappeared from collective memory. In The Best of All Possible Worlds, historian Michael Kempe tells the invigorating story of how one man was able to make defining contributions to the most diverse fields, becoming one of the most significant thinkers in history.
Recreating seven crucial days in Leibniz's life, Kempe shows us a great mind in action, surging with ideas that would change the course of mathematics and philosophy, even laying early foundations for modern digital culture with his work on binary numbers and mechanical calculators. Convinced that everything was profoundly interconnected, Leibniz was driven by an exhilarating optimism that allowed him to forge links between faith and reason, physics and metaphysics – and to harness the endless possibility than can be realized within a single mind on a single day.
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Marshall Yarbrough is a writer, translator, and musician. He has translated works by Ulla Lenze, Norman Ohler, and Wolf Wondratschek, among other authors.
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