Download or read book The Best of All Possible Worlds written by Karen Lord and published by Del Rey. This book was released on 2013-02-12 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BUZZFEED • A stunning epic that is at once a new vision of science fiction and a deeply moving love story, from the award-winning author of Redemption in Indigo “An engrossing picaresque quest, a love story, and a moving character study . . . [Karen] Lord is on a par with Ursula K. Le Guin.”—The Guardian A proud and reserved alien society finds its homeland destroyed in an unprovoked act of aggression, leaving the survivors no choice but to reach out to the indigenous humanoids of their adopted world, to whom they are distantly related. They wish to preserve their cherished way of life but discover that to protect their culture, they may have to change it forever. Now a man and a woman from opposite sides of these clashing societies must work together to save this vanishing race—and end up uncovering ancient mysteries with far-reaching ramifications. As their mission hangs in the balance, these unlikely partners—one cool and cerebral, the other fiery and impulsive—may find in each other their own destinies . . . and a force that transcends all. Includes two bonus short stories “[A] fascinating and thoughtful science fiction novel that examines] adaptation, social change, and human relationships. I’ve not read anything quite like it, which makes it that rare beast: a true original.”—Kate Elliott, author of the Crown of Stars series and The Spiritwalker Trilogy “Reads like smooth jazz comfort food, deceptively familiar and easy going down, but subtly subversive.”—Nalo Hopkinson, Los Angeles Review of Books “If you want to see science fiction doing something new and fascinating . . . then you shouldn’t sleep on The Best of All Possible Worlds.”—io9 “Rewarding science fiction for emotional grown-ups.”—Mysterious Galaxy “[A] marvelously formed universe.”—The A.V. Club “A rewarding, touching and often funny exploration of the forms and functions of human culture.”—SFX “The Best of All Possible Worlds . . . poses an interesting question: What parts of you do you fight to preserve when everything you know suddenly changes?”—Associated Press

Download or read book The Best of All Possible Worlds written by Steven M. Nadler and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2010-04-04 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discusses the relationship between three great philosophers of the Age of Reason and their thoughts on evil and why it existed.

Download or read book The Best of All Possible Worlds Leibniz s Philosophical Optimism and Its Critics 1710 1755 written by Hernán D. Caro and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-09-25 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first comprehensive survey of the criticisms of Leibniz's philosophical optimism in the first half of the eighteenth century, when what has been called the ‘debacle of the perfect world’ first began.

Download or read book Candide written by Voltaire and published by Hyweb Technology Co. Ltd.. This book was released on 2011-04-15 with total page 690 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Best of All Possible Worlds written by Ivar Ekeland and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2007-10-31 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Optimists believe this is the best of all possible worlds, and pessimists fear that might really be the case. There was a time, during the 17th and 18th centuries, when scientists and mathematicians felt they could provide the answer. This book is their story.

Download or read book Of All Possible Worlds written by William Tenn and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-03-03 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It was a good job and Max Alben knew whom he had to thank for it-his great-grandfather. "Good old Giovanni Albeni," he muttered as he hurried into the laboratory slightly ahead of the escorting technicians, all of them, despite the excitement of the moment, remembering to bob their heads deferentially at the half-dozen full-fleshed and hard-faced men lolling on the couches that had been set up around the time machine.

Download or read book Leibniz written by Maria Rosa Antognazza and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work considers who Leibniz was and introduces his overarching intellectual vision. It follows his pursuit of the systematic reform and advancement of all the sciences, to be undertaken as a collaborative enterprise supported by an enlightened ruler, and his ultimate goal of the improvement of the human condition.

Download or read book Leibniz Or the Best of All Possible Worlds written by Jean Paul Mongin and published by Diaphanes. This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vienna, 1714: Late in life, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, the universal genius of his time, puts down his pen and declares his description of the universe to be complete. In the evening, he sits in his study room among letters, books, and manuscripts as his young friend Theodor comes for a visit. Theodor is bothered by one question: Why is there evil? And why do people commit crimes? With an example from ancient Greek mythology, Leibniz develops his theory about the best of all possible worlds. With this vivid "story within a story" Jean Paul Mongin successfully imparts the complex philosophical ideas of Leibniz to young readers. At its most basic, philosophy is about learning how to think about the world around us. It should come as no surprise, then, that children make excellent philosophers Naturally inquisitive, pint-size scholars need little prompting before being willing to consider life's "big questions," however strange or impractical. Plato & Co. introduces children--and curious grown-ups--to the lives and work of famous philosophers, from Socrates to Descartes, Einstein, Marx, and Wittgenstein. Each book in the series features an engaging--and often funny--story that presents basic tenets of philosophical thought alongside vibrant color illustrations.

Download or read book Candide written by Voltaire and published by Nicolae Sfetcu. This book was released on with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Translated and illustrated by Nicolae Sfetcu. A philosophical tale, a story of a journey that will transform the eponymous hero into a philosopher. An important debate on fatalism and the existence of Evil. For a long time Voltaire has been fiercely opposed to the ideas of the philosopher Leibniz concerning God, the "principle of sufficient reason," and his idea of ​​"pre-established harmony." God is perfect, the world can not be, but God has created the best possible world. Evil exists punctually, but it is compensated elsewhere by an infinitely great good. Nothing happens without there being a necessary cause. An encouragement to fatalism. Voltaire opposes to this optimism that he considers smug, a lucid vision on the world and its imperfections, a confidence in the man who is able to improve his condition. In Candide, Voltaire openly attacks Leibnizian optimism and makes Pangloss a ridiculous defender of this philosophy. Criticism of optimism is the main theme of the tale: each of the adventures of the hero tends to prove that it is wrong to believe that our world is the best of all possible worlds.

Download or read book The Galaxy Game written by Karen Lord and published by Del Rey. This book was released on 2015-01-06 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • A gripping science fiction saga about three students from a school for those with extraordinary powers, from the award-winning author of The Best of All Possible Worlds “A smart science fictional fable as inventive and involving as it is finally vital.”—Tordotcom On the verge of adulthood, Rafi attends the Lyceum, a school for the psionically gifted. Rafi possesses mental abilities that might benefit people . . . or control them. Some wish to help Rafi wield his powers responsibly; others see him as a threat to be contained. Rafi’s only freedom at the Lyceum is Wallrunning: a game of speed and agility played on vast vertical surfaces riddled with variable gravity fields. Serendipity and Ntenman are also students at the Lyceum, but unlike Rafi, they come from communities where such abilities are valued. Serendipity finds the Lyceum as much a prison as a school, and she yearns for a meaningful life beyond its gates. Ntenman, with his quick tongue, quicker mind, and a willingness to bend if not break the rules, has no problem fitting in. But he too has his reasons for wanting to escape. Now the three friends are about to experience a moment of violent change as seething tensions between rival star-faring civilizations come to a head. For Serendipity, this change will challenge her ideas of community and self. For Ntenman, it will open new opportunities and new dangers. And for Rafi, given a chance to train with some of the best Wallrunners in the galaxy, it will lead to the discovery that there is more to Wallrunning than he ever suspected . . . and more to himself than he ever dreamed. Includes two bonus short stories “There is a weight and grace to [Lord’s] prose that put me in mind of pewter jewelry.”—NPR “This novel is a satisfying exercise in being off-balance, a visceral lesson in how to fall forward and catch yourself in an amazing new place.”—The Seattle Times

Download or read book The Best of All Possible Worlds written by B Verney and published by . This book was released on 2012-05 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Set in Amherst, Massachusetts, this is the story of Sam, a promising philosophy PhD student who takes a life-changing journey to Switzerland to attend an advanced 10-week course on Transcendental Meditation. He is challenged by Maharishi Mahesh Yogito create and teach a class on Being which integrates Eastern and Western philosophies. The success of these lectures at Amherst College is immediate, but midway through a book tour tragedy strikes and Sam is plunged into obscurity and deep introspection, until he has a chance encounter with an Amherst College student who coaxes Sam to once again confront his destiny.

Download or read book Theodicy written by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and published by e-artnow. This book was released on 2020-05-15 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Theodicy" is a book of philosophy by the German polymath Gottfried Leibniz published in 1710, whose optimistic approach to the problem of evil is thought to have inspired Voltaire's "Candide". Much of the work consists of a response to the ideas of the French philosopher Pierre Bayle, with whom Leibniz carried on a debate for many years. The "Theodicy" tries to justify the apparent imperfections of the world by claiming that it is optimal among all possible worlds. It must be the best possible and most balanced world, because it was created by an all powerful and all knowing God, who would not choose to create an imperfect world if a better world could be known to him or possible to exist. In effect, apparent flaws that can be identified in this world must exist in every possible world, because otherwise God would have chosen to create the world that excluded those flaws. Leibniz distinguishes three forms of evil: moral, physical, and metaphysical. Moral evil is sin, physical evil is pain, and metaphysical evil is limitation. God permits moral and physical evil for the sake of greater goods, and metaphysical evil is unavoidable since any created universe must necessarily fall short of God's absolute perfection.

Download or read book Leibniz on Compossibility and Possible Worlds written by Gregory Brown and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-12-27 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together a number of original articles by leading Leibniz scholars to address the meaning and significance of Leibniz’s notions of compossibility and possible worlds. In order to avoid the conclusion that everything that exists is necessary, or that all possibles are actual, as Spinoza held, Leibniz argued that not all possible substances are compossible, that is, capable of coexisting. In Leibniz’s view, the compossibility relation divides all possible substances into disjoint sets, each of which constitutes a possible world, or a way that God might have created things. For Leibniz, then, it is the compossibility relation that individuates possible worlds; and possible worlds form the objects of God’s choice, from among which he chooses the best for creation. Thus the notions of compossibility and possible worlds are of major significance for Leibniz’s metaphysics, his theodicy, and, ultimately, for his ethics. Given the fact, however, that none of the approaches to understanding Leibniz’s notions of compossibility and possible words suggested to date have gained universal acceptance, the goal of this book is to gather a body of new papers that explore ways of either refining previous interpretations in light of the objections that have been raised against them, or ways of framing new interpretations that will contribute to a fresh understanding of these key notions in Leibniz’s thought.

Download or read book Theodicy in Islamic Thought written by Eric Linn Ormsby and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2014-07-14 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first detailed study of Islamic theodicy, the book points out distinctively Islamic formulations and solutions of the problem of the best of all possible worlds" and shows where they coincide with Western versions, such as that of Leibniz. Originally published in 1984. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Download or read book The Worst of All Possible Worlds written by Alex White and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2020-07-28 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The rag-tag crew of the Capricious hunts down rogue AI, ancient colony ships, and the biggest treasure in the universe in this pulse-pounding space adventure for fans of Firefly and The Expanse. The crew of the Capricious seems to leave a trail of devastation wherever they go. But with powerful enemies in pursuit and family and friends under attack planetside, there's no time to worry about all that. Ensnared by the legend of Origin, humanity's birthplace, and a long-dead form of magic, the Capricious takes off on a journey to find the first colony ship . . . and power that could bring down gods. Read the incredible space-fantasy series that V. E. Schwab calls "A total blast!" The SalvagersA Big Ship at the Edge of the UniverseA Bad Deal for the Whole GalaxyThe Worst of All Possible Worlds

Download or read book The Best of All Possible Worlds written by John O'Loughlin and published by Centretruths Digital Media. This book was released on 2022-05-14 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John O'Loughlin's aphoristic philosophy e-book brings his element-based comprehensive exactitude to bear on morality, not just on one kind but on all the different kinds of morality, and shows that morality only exists because it is hegemonic over a correlative unmorality corresponding, in whatever class/element position, to the subordinate gender, but that such a hegemony dare not risk an immoral backlash from below on account of its own amoral failings - something which the author goes into in some detail with the help of analogous contexts and examples, whether sartorial, social, literary, or whatever. But John O'Loughlin, whilst he may be comprehensively exacting in his outlining of the different kinds of morality, is not impartial. On the contrary, he makes a case for only one type of morality (and its corresponding unmorality) - a case that, in his view, would result, if politically and religiously implemented, in the best of all possible worlds - the goal towards which his entire philosophy points.

Download or read book Redemption in Indigo written by Karen Lord and published by Del Rey. This book was released on 2024-06-11 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The enchanting tale of mischief and myth—inspired by West African folklore—that became a fantasy classic, from the award-winning author of The Blue, Beautiful World Paama is a marvelous cook who’s had the bad fortune to marry Ansige. He was the least eligible bachelor in his village: self-centered, foolish, and food-obsessed. Paama has had enough of this miserable life with her gluttonous husband, and so leaves him to return to her old life with her family. But Paama does not know that this is the beginning of a remarkable adventure. Because the Undying Ones are watching her. These spirits observe the follies of mortal life . . . and sometimes meddle and make mischief. One of these beings presents her with a magical artifact known as the Chaos Stick, which he says is “great for stirring things up.” As Paama gets to know the powers of this marvelous gift, she learns that the Chaos Stick was stolen from a rival spirit, who decides to stir up some trouble of his own. But mastering this magical artifact is only the beginning of Paama’s quest. Although Paama has been granted great power by the Undying Ones, her real journey is to find the magic that lies within herself.