The Global/Local Distinction Vindicates Leibniz's Theodicy.

The essential idea of Leibniz's Theodicy has become one of the organizing themes of modern mathematics. Many phenomena are possible locally but for purely mathematical reasons impossible globally. For example, it is possible to build a spiral staircase that is rising at any given point, but not one that is rising at all points and comes back to where it started. The necessity is mathematically provable, so not subject to exception by divine power. Modern mathematics vindicates Leibniz's theory that, contrary to what we think we can imagine, there is no possible world better than this one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]