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outside a theological frame of reference--one either adopted as true, or one adopted in order to ridicule it---the notion of the best of all possible worlds makes no sense. the argument requires that one suppose that a manifold exists somewhere--around the category of "world" for example----this manifold would be made up of stagings of all possible arrangements at once--it is only conceivable in terms of a particular conception of god's mind---in principle, then, if one could access this manifold, one could go shopping there.
or you assume the same thing implicitly, combine it with a belief in a benevolent god, and the conclusion that this might be the best of all possible worlds can follow.
same kind of reasoning can be applied to the "problem of evil"---metaphysics, pure and simple.
if you assume, on the other hand, that the social world is made by human beings as a fundamental aspect of their historical being, then the best you can say is that his manifold is a projection that would function as a mode of explanation for the fact of the social world conditioned by the ideological frame of reference within which the actors operate. evil then becomes a category used to explain--and dehistoricize--questions that otherwise would be understood as political.
i like to use candide as a way of thinking about what it means to be a religious conservative in the states now.
i'd keep writing, but i have to go to a party.
it will not be the best of all possible parties.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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