Water and mountain landscape

Part of each Heavenly Planet event will be a space for words and comedy, poetry and argument, a celebration of language; which along with music is one of our most powerful tools of communication.

In this part of the Heavenly Planet web site, we will celebrate language, words and definitions; choosing a word or two each time with which to inspire, intrigue and possibly amuse you.

Upcoming Word of the Month, one of the hardest words in the English language to grasp with confidence, will be, wait for it:

Irony

The drummer for ZZ Top, who is the only member of the band not have a beard, is named; Frank Beard.

Ironic or what?

Hmmm…

But kicking things off here at Heavenly Planet and celebrating our cheerful theme of Music and Optimism, the first Word of the Month is:

Optimism

The word and very concept of Optimism is surprisingly recent, brought into conscious thought in 1710 by the German mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Leibniz.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646 - 1716) was a German polymath who wrote primarily in Latin and French.

He occupies an equally important place in both the history of philosophy and the history of mathematics. He invented infinitesimal calculus independently of Newton, and his notation is the one in general use since then.

He also invented the binary system, foundation of virtually all modern computer architectures. In philosophy, he is mostly remembered for optimism, his conclusion that our universe is, in a restricted sense, the best possible one God could have made. He was, along with René Descartes and Baruch Spinoza, one of the three greatest 17th-century rationalists

More information about Leibniz is printed below (reproduced from Wikipedia) and here first is the definition of the word Optimism in English, this entry printed from Oxford English Dictionary Online.

optimism, n.

1. Contrasted with PESSIMISM n. 3.

a. Philos. The doctrine propounded by Leibniz (1710) that the actual world is the best of all possible worlds. Also: any of various similar philosophical doctrines of earlier or later thinkers.

Leibniz argued that this world was chosen by the Creator out of all the worlds that could have been created, as that in which the most good could be obtained at the cost of the least evil.

1759 BP. W. WARBURTON Lett. (1809) 289 The professed design is to ridicule the Optimisme, not of Pope, but of Leibnitz.

1782 J. WARTON Ess. on Pope (ed. 4) II. ix. 124 That this Platonic scheme, of Optimism, or the best, sufficiently accounts for the introduction of moral and physical evil into the world.

1793 D. STEWART Outl. Moral Philos. II. 195 By some modern authors, the scheme of Optimism has been proposed in a form..which leads to a justification of moral evil, even with respect to the delinquent.

1842 W. T. BRANDE Dict. Sci., Lit. & Art 849/1 The optimism of Leibnitz was based on the following trilemma:{em}If this world be not the best possible, God must either, 1. not have known how to make a better, 2. not have been able, 3. not have chosen.

1917 Mind 26 12 The pedantic optimism of popular theology extracted from Leibnitz and ridiculed by Voltaire.

1989 Encycl. Brit. XII. 427 Voltaire wrote several contes (tales), including..Candide (1758), a satire on philosophical optimism, which became his best-known work.

b. A view or belief which assumes the ultimate predominance of good over evil in the universe.

1841 R. W. EMERSON Ess. 1st Ser. vii. 188 One might find argument for optimism, in the abundant flow of this saccharine element of pleasure, in every suburb.

1878 T. SINCLAIR Mount 18 The optimism that may well be considered fanciful is that of Hegel, Buckle, republicans like Hugo,..Whitman, and the development men generally.

1888 MRS. H. WARD Robert Elsmere III. VI. xlii. 240 The young reformer's social simplicity, his dreams, his optimisms.

1900 W. L. COURTNEY Idea of Trag. 67 A shallow optimism is the last theory of all to which a thinking man ought to consent.

1956 R. C. ZAEHNER in A. Pryce-Jones New Outl. Mod. Knowl. 65 Nineteenth-century optimism, then, is comparable to Buddhism in the emphasis it lays on individual effort in the battle for salvation.

1991 Independent 28 Nov. 35/7 Billetdoux's was a controversial refreshing and, above all, actable talent,..dogged, for all the pride of his Christian optimism, by misunderstanding.

{dag}2. Contrasted with PESSIMISM n. 1.

a. The character or quality of being for the best. Obs. rare.
1795 R. SOUTHEY in J. Cottle Early Recoll. (1837) II. 3 Of all things it is most difficult to understand the optimism of this difference of language. 1821 BYRON 2nd Let. Bowles' Strict. in Wks. (1832) VI. 403 It may be wrong, but it does not assume pretentions to Optimism.

b. The quality of being the best, perfection. Obs. rare.
1796 R. SOUTHEY Lett. from Spain (1799) 228 Portugal is the best part of Spain... So much for the beauty and optimism of Portugal.

3. Hopefulness and confidence about the future or the successful outcome of something; a tendency to take a favourable or hopeful view. Contrasted with PESSIMISM n. 2.

1812 M. EDGEWORTH Absentee xvi, in Tales Fashionable Life (ed. 2) VI. 416 Said she, ‘Women have not always the liberty of choice, and therefore they can't be expected to have always the power of refusal.’ The mother, satisfied with her convenient optimism, got into her carriage.

1859 F. C. L. WRAXALL tr. J. E. Robert-Houdin Mem. xix. 277 His disposition to look at the bright side of everything. He was the incarnation of optimism.

1893 H. P. LIDDON et al. Life Pusey I. viii. 158 Pusey's optimism as to the existing state of German Protestantism.

1940 W. S. CHURCHILL in J. F. Kennedy Why Eng. Slept (1962) vii. 131, I must say I am astounded at the wave of optimism, of confidence, and even of complacency.

1963 M. L. KING Strength to Love x. 84 In a seemingly hopeless situation, they fashioned within their souls a creative optimism that strengthened them.

1996 Maclean's 4 Mar. 30/1 The optimism of his campaign slogan, Ready for a Better Tomorrow, cannot mask the daunting challenges that lie ahead.

Would it be considered an ironic idea that the word Optimism only owes its rapid and international diffusion to the satirical attack upon the doctrine made by the writer Voltaire in Candide ou l'Optimisme (1759).

One for next month…The Irony of Life!

Gottfried Leibniz
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Full name: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Birth: 1 July (21 June Old Style) 1646, Leipzig, Electorate of Saxony
Death: 14 November 1716, Hanover, Electorate of Hanover
School/tradition: Rationalism
Main interests: Metaphysics, Mathematics, Theodicy
Notable ideas: Infinitesimal calculus, Calculus, Monadology, Theodicy, Optimism
Influenced by: Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Su·rez, Descartes, Spinoza, Ramon Llull
Influenced: Many later mathematicians, Christian Wolff, Kant, Russell, Heidegger

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz; also Leibnitz or von Leibniz; (1 July 1646 - 14 November 1716) was a German polymath who wrote primarily in Latin and French.

He occupies an equally grand place in both the history of philosophy and the history of mathematics. He invented infinitesimal calculus independently of Newton, and his notation is the one in general use since then. He also invented the binary system, foundation of virtually all modern computer architectures.

In philosophy, he is mostly remembered for optimism, i.e. his conclusion that our universe is, in a restricted sense, the best possible one God could have made. He was, along with RenÈ Descartes and Baruch Spinoza, one of the three greatest 17th-century rationalists, but his philosophy also looks back to the scholastic tradition and anticipates modern logic and analysis.

Leibniz also made major contributions to physics and technology, and anticipated notions that surfaced much later in biology, medicine, geology, probability theory, psychology, linguistics, and information science. He also wrote on politics, law, ethics, theology, history, and philology, even occasional verse. His contributions to this vast array of subjects are scattered in journals and in tens of thousands of letters and unpublished manuscripts. As of 2008, there is no complete edition of Leibniz's writings.

Also coming soon, folks;