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Books and Arts

Nature 445, 25 (4 January 2007) | doi:10.1038/445025a; Published online 3 January 2007

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On the right path

Joseph Mazur1

BOOK REVIEWEDThe Best of All Possible Worlds: Mathematics and Destiny

by Ivar Ekeland

Chicago University Press: 2006. 191 pp. $25

Thomas Aquinas argued that evil helps the good in the world. St Augustine maintained that God brought evil into the Universe to bring about a greater good.