# Essais de Théodicée is published as Leibniz’s only lifetime philosophical book

Date: 1710

## The fact

In 1710 Essais de Théodicée appeared, Leibniz’s only philosophical book published in his lifetime, defending the ‘best of possible worlds’ against Bayle. Later Candide is not this colophon.

It is one event.

## Context

SEP and Britannica independently date the 1710 Théodicée. Monadology (1714) remained a private then posthumous text and is not split out here as a twin of the same public book. Court theodicy can also quieten protest; that reading is not stored as a second Fact.

[Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz](/people/gottfried-wilhelm-leibniz)’s documented role is bounded by other offices and collaborators named in the sources below. Sharing a field with them is not a reason to drop a documented act, and it is not a reason to assign later consequences done in the name after death.

Conventional years are 1646–1716. Surviving public files are GWLB Nachlass pages, the Akademie-Ausgabe, SEP, and encyclopedias. Leibniz did not typeset those later pages. Later electronic computers are not this life.

Named person as heading of the dated public instrument. Later editors, museums, printers, or offices share publication. Complex where later carriers are the surviving public file.

## Evidence and sources

SEP’s Leibniz entry and Britannica independently describe the 1710 Théodicée as the lifetime philosophical book.

Official or archival record: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/leibniz/; Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).

## Significance

Knowledge-access path. High confidence on 1710.

## What is established and what is not

Established: Théodicée was published in 1710. Not established: that 1710 uniquely lowered any measured unrest series.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

Established here: a sourced, dated public instrument with a named contribution by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.

They are not a public rating.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz did not file a later UNESCO form, a later Loeb colophon, or a later museum label as a personal act. A portrait or conventional bust is not this mechanism. Allegation, reconstruction, and established occurrence stay distinct.

## People

- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: https://factrail.ai/people/gottfried-wilhelm-leibniz

## Sources

- https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/leibniz/
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/gwl-theodicy-1710