The Thesis of God's Choice of The Best: an Exception in The Modal Theory of Leibniz

The proposition "God chooses the best" is for Leibniz an undeniable truth, as well as a fundamental premise in both his explanation of this world's existence and his theodicy. Leibniz thought it was necessary to clarify its modal status, in virtue of this matter's connection with God's freedom. Nevertheless, while dealing with this problem, he was led to violate his own modal theory's principles, in order to sustain the contingency of that proposition. This paper intends to show that Leibniz's main view regarding the modality of this proposition represents a sort of exception in the framework of his modal conception, and that this uncertainty reveals the profound reasons of his numerous textual hesitations on the subject.