Many of Leibniz's writings represent the creation of rational minds as the culmination of God's plan for the best of all possible worlds. Minds, they suggest, are what God prizes most in the universe – the rest is created merely as a means to their greatest happiness:

This conception of the universe as “made for” intelligent creatures appears to stand in an uneasy tension with what we have so far identified as the primary end of creation: the maximization of metaphysical goodness or perfection. To the extent that Leibniz champions the latter as the fundamental value realized in creation, he seems to reserve no special place in the world for rational creatures; conversely, to the extent that he represents the perfection of the rest of the universe merely as a means to the greater happiness of minds, he appears to reject the maximization of metaphysical goodness as the primary end of creation.