Download or read book On Leibniz written by Nicholas Rescher and published by University of Pittsburgh Press. This book was released on 2014-07-15 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contemporary philosopher John Searle has characterized Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) as "the most intelligent human being who has ever lived." The German philosopher, mathematician, and logician invented calculus (independently of Sir Isaac Newton), topology, determinants, binary arithmetic, symbolic logic, rational mechanics, and much more. His metaphysics bequeathed a set of problems and approaches that have influenced the course of Western philosophy from Kant in the eighteenth century until the present day. On Leibniz examines many aspects of Leibniz's work and life. This expanded edition adds new chapters that explore Leibniz's revolutionary deciphering machine; his theoretical interest in cryptography and its ties to algebra; his thoughts on eternal recurrence theory; his rebuttal of the thesis of improvability in the world and cosmos; and an overview of American scholarship on Leibniz. Other chapters reveal Leibniz as a substantial contributor to theories of knowledge. Discussions of his epistemology and methodology, its relationship to John Maynard Keynes and Talmudic scholarship, broaden the traditional view of Leibniz. Rescher also views Leibniz's scholarly development and professional career in historical context. As a "philosopher courtier" to the Hanoverian court, Leibniz was associated with the leading intellectuals and politicians of his era, including Spinoza, Huygens, Newton, Queen Sophie Charlotte, and Tsar Peter the Great. Rescher extrapolates the fundamentals of Leibniz's ontology: the theory of possible worlds, the world's contingency, space-time frameworks, and intermonadic relationships. In conclusion, Rescher positions Leibniz as a philosophical role model for today's scholars. He argues that many current problems can be effectively addressed with principles of process philosophy inspired by Leibniz's system of monadology.
Download or read book Leibniz written by Nicholas Jolley and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-03-13 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) was hailed by Bertrand Russell as 'one of the supreme intellects of all time'. A towering figure in seventeenth-century philosophy, his complex thought has been championed and satirized in equal measure, most famously in Voltaire's Candide. In this outstanding introduction to his philosophy, Nicholas Jolley introduces and assesses the whole of Leibniz's philosophy. Beginning with an introduction to Leibniz's life and work, he carefully introduces the core elements of Leibniz's metaphysics: his theories of substance, identity and individuation; monads and space and time; and his important debate over the nature of space and time with Newton's champion, Samuel Clarke. He then introduces Leibniz's theories of mind, knowledge, and innate ideas, showing how Leibniz anticipated the distinction between conscious and unconscious states, before examining his theory of free will and the problem of evil. An important feature of the book is its introduction to Leibniz's moral and political philosophy, an overlooked aspect of his work. The final chapter assesses legacy and the impact of his philosophy on philosophy as a whole, particularly on the work of Immanuel Kant. Throughout, Nicholas Jolley places Leibniz in relation to some of the other great philosophers, such as Descartes, Spinoza and Locke, and discusses Leibniz's key works, such as the Monadology and Discourse on Metaphysics.
Download or read book Leibniz on Causation and Agency written by Julia Jorati and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-07-13 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fresh and thorough exploration of Leibniz's often controversial theories, including his thought on teleology, contingency, freedom, and moral responsibility.
Download or read book Discourse on Metaphysics written by Gottfried Wilhelm Freiherr von Leibniz and published by . This book was released on 1918 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Leibniz on God and Religion written by Lloyd Strickland and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-02-25 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bringing together Leibniz's writings on God and religion for the very first time, Leibniz on God and Religion: A Reader reflects the growing importance now placed on Leibniz's philosophical theology. This reader features a wealth of material, from journal articles and book reviews published in Leibniz's lifetime to private notes and essays, as well as items from his correspondence. Organised thematically into the following sections, this reader captures the changes in Leibniz's thinking over the course of his career: The Catholic Demonstrations The existence and nature of God Reason and faith Ethics and the love of God The Bible Miracles and mysteries The churches and their doctrines Grace and predestination Sin, evil, and theodicy The afterlife Non-Christian religions In preparing this reader, Strickland has returned to Leibniz's original manuscripts to ensure accurate translations of key texts, the majority of which have not been available in English before. The reader also contains a number of texts previously unpublished in any form. Alongside the translations, this reader contains an introductory essay, explanatory notes on all of the texts, and suggestions for further reading. This valuable sourcebook enables students of all levels to achieve a well-rounded understanding of Leibniz's philosophical theology.
Download or read book Leibniz s Metaphysics of Time and Space written by Michael Futch and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-04-05 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leibniz’s metaphysics of space and time stands at the centre of his philosophy and is one of the high-water marks in the history of the philosophy of science. In this work, Futch provides the first systematic and comprehensive examination of Leibniz’s thought on this subject. In addition to elucidating the nature of Leibniz’s relationalism, the book fills a lacuna in existing scholarship by examining his views on the topological structure of space and time, including the unity and unboundedness of space and time. It is shown that, like many of his more recent counterparts, Leibniz adopts a causal theory of time where temporal facts are grounded on causal facts, and that his approach to time represents a precursor to non-tensed theories of time. Futch then goes on to situate Leibniz’s philosophy of space and time within the broader context of his idealistic metaphysics and natural theology. Emphasizing the historical background of Leibniz’s thought, the book also places him in dialogue with contemporary philosophy of science, underscoring the enduring philosophical interest of Leibniz’s metaphysics of time and space.
Download or read book Leibniz written by C. D Broad and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1975-06-26 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book, first published in 1975, provides critical and comprehensive introduction to the philosophy of Leibniz. C.D. Broad was Knightsbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy at Cambridge from 1933 to 1953 and this book is based on his undergraduate lectures on Leibniz. Broad died in 1971 and Dr Lewy has since edited the book for publication. Leibniz is, of course, recognized as a major figure in all courses in the history of philosophy, but he has perhaps been less well served by textbook writers than most other philosophers. Broad has provided here a characteristically shrewd and sympathetic survey which further confirms his known virtues as an historian and expositor. It is a very clear, detailed and orderly guide to what is notoriously a most difficult (and sometimes disorderly) philosophical system; it provides a masterful introduction to the subject.
Download or read book Leibniz written by Donald Rutherford and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2005-03-17 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The revival of Leibniz studies in the past twenty-five years has cast important new light on both the context and content of Leibniz's philosophical thought. Where earlier English-language scholarship understood Leibniz's philosophy as issuing from his preoccupations with logic and language, recent work has recommended an account on which theological, ethical, and metaphysical themes figure centrally in Leibniz's thought throughout his career. The significance of these themes to the development of Leibniz's philosophy is the subject of increasing attention by philosophers and historians. This collection of new essays by a distinguished group of scholars offers an up-to-date overview of the current state of Leibniz research. In focusing on nature and freedom, the volume revisits two key topics in Leibniz's thought, on which he engaged both contemporary and historical arguments. Important contributions to Leibniz scholarship in their own right, these articles collectively provide readers a framework in which to better situate Leibniz's distinctive philosophy of nature and the congenial home for a morally significant freedom that he took it to provide.
Download or read book Leibniz and the Rational Order of Nature written by Donald Rutherford and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This major contribution to Leibniz scholarship will prove invaluable to historians of philosophy, theology, and science.
Download or read book Protogaea written by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2008-09-15 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Protogaea, an ambitious account of terrestrial history, was central to the development of the earth sciences in the eighteenth century and provides key philosophical insights into the unity of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’s thought and writings. In the book, Leibniz offers observations about the formation of the earth, the actions of fire and water, the genesis of rocks and minerals, the origins of salts and springs, the formation of fossils, and their identification as the remains of living organisms. Protogaea also includes a series of engraved plates depicting the remains of animals—in particular the famous reconstruction of a “fossil unicorn”—together with a cross section of the cave in which some fossil objects were discovered. Though the works of Leibniz have been widely translated, Protogaea has languished in its original Latin for centuries. Now Claudine Cohen and Andre Wakefield offer the first English translation of this central text in natural philosophy and natural history. Written between 1691 and 1693, and first published after Leibniz’s death in 1749, Protogaea reemerges in this bilingual edition with an introduction that carefully situates the work within its historical context.
Download or read book Leibniz God and Necessity written by Michael V. Griffin and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a necessitarian interpretation of Leibniz which grounds modal concepts in theology.
Download or read book Leibniz and Clarke written by Ezio Vailati and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1997-11-27 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The correspondence between Leibniz and Samuel Clarke was the most influential philosophical exchange of the eighteenth century, and indeed one of the most significant such exchanges in the history of philosophy. Carried out in 1715 and 1716, the debate focused on the clash between Newtonian and Leibnizian world systems, involving disputes in physics, theology, and metaphysics. The letters ranged over an extraordinary array of topics, including divine immensity and eternity, the relation of God to the world, free will, gravitation, the existence of atoms and the void, and the size of the universe. This penetrating book is the first to offer a comprehensive overview and commentary on the Leibniz-Clarke correspondence. Building his narrative around general subjects covered in the exchange--God, the soul, space and time, miracles and nature, matter and force--Ezio Vailati devotes special attention to a question crucial for Leibniz and Clarke alike. Both philosophers, worried by the advance of naturalism and its consequences for morality, devised complex systems to counter naturalism and reinforce natural religion. However, they not only deeply disagreed on how to answer the naturalist threat, but they ended up seeing in each other's views the germs of naturalism itself. Vailati rigorously tracks the twists and turns of this argument, shedding important new light on a critical moment in modern philosophy. Lucid, taut, and energetically written, this book not only examines the Leibniz-Clarke debate in unprecedented depth but also situates the views advanced by the two men in the context of their principal writings. An invaluable reference to a fascinating exchange of ideas, Leibniz and Clarke makes vital reading for philosophers and historians of science and theology.
Download or read book Leibniz Or the Best of All Possible Worlds written by Jean Paul Mongin and published by Diaphanes. This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vienna, 1714: Late in life, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, the universal genius of his time, puts down his pen and declares his description of the universe to be complete. In the evening, he sits in his study room among letters, books, and manuscripts as his young friend Theodor comes for a visit. Theodor is bothered by one question: Why is there evil? And why do people commit crimes? With an example from ancient Greek mythology, Leibniz develops his theory about the best of all possible worlds. With this vivid "story within a story" Jean Paul Mongin successfully imparts the complex philosophical ideas of Leibniz to young readers. At its most basic, philosophy is about learning how to think about the world around us. It should come as no surprise, then, that children make excellent philosophers Naturally inquisitive, pint-size scholars need little prompting before being willing to consider life's "big questions," however strange or impractical. Plato & Co. introduces children--and curious grown-ups--to the lives and work of famous philosophers, from Socrates to Descartes, Einstein, Marx, and Wittgenstein. Each book in the series features an engaging--and often funny--story that presents basic tenets of philosophical thought alongside vibrant color illustrations.
Download or read book Leibniz on Time Space and Relativity written by Richard T. W. Arthur and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-01-15 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, Arthur gives fresh interpretations of Gottfried Leibniz's theories of time, space, and the relativity of motion, based on a thorough examination of Leibniz's manuscripts as well as his published papers. These are analysed in historical context, but also with an eye to their contemporary relevance. Leibniz's views on relativity have been extremely influential, first on Mach, and then on Einstein, while his novel approach to geometry in his analysis situs inspired many later developments in geometry. Arthur expounds the latter in some detail, explaining its relationship to Leibniz's metaphysics of space and the grounding of motion, and defending Leibniz's views on the relativity of motion against charges of inconsistency. The brilliance of his work on time, though, has not been so well appreciated, and Arthur attempts to remedy this through a detailed discussion of Leibniz's relational theory of time, showing how it underpins his theory of possible worlds, his complex account of contingency, and his highly original treatment of the continuity of time, providing formal treatments in an appendix. In other appendices, Arthur provides translations of previously untranslated writings by Leibniz on analysis situs and on Copernicanism, as well as an essay on Leibniz's philosophy of relations. In his introductory chapter he explains how the framework for the book is provided by the interpretation of Leibniz's metaphysics he defended in his earlier Monads, Composition, and Force (OUP 2018, winner of the 2019 annual JHP Book Prize for best book in the history of philosophy published in 2018).
Download or read book New Essays on Leibniz s Theodicy written by Larry M. Jorgensen and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2014-02-20 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1710 G. W. Leibniz published Theodicy: Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man, and the Origin of Evil. This book, the only one he published in his lifetime, established his reputation more than anything else he wrote. The Theodicy brings together many different strands of Leibniz's own philosophical system, and we get a rare snapshot of how he intended these disparate aspects of his philosophy to come together into a single, overarching account of divine justice in the face of the world's evils. At the same time, the Theodicy is a fascinating window into the context of philosophical theology in the seventeenth century. Leibniz had his finger on the intellectual pulse of his time, and this comes out very clearly in the Theodicy. He engages with all of the major lines of theological dispute of that time, demonstrating the encyclopaedic breadth of his understanding of the issues. Leibniz's Theodicy remains one of the most abiding systematic accounts of how evil is compatible with divine goodness. Any treatment of the problem of evil must, at some point, come to grips with Leibniz's proposed solution. This volume refreshes and deepens our understanding of this great work. Leading scholars present original essays which critically evaluate the Theodicy, providing a window on its historical context and giving close attention to the subtle and enduring philosophical arguments.
Download or read book Leibniz written by Irena Backus and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Irena Backus offers the first examination of Leibniz as both scholar and theologian in more than four hundred years, illuminating the relationship between metaphysics and theology in Leibniz's handling of key theological issues of his time: predestination, sacred history, the Eucharist, and efforts for a union between Lutherans and Catholics and between Lutherans and Calvinists. Drawing on a wide range of Leibniz's writings, Backus carefully presents the philosophical points and counterpoints of Leibniz's positions. She shows how Leibniz's essentially Lutheran nonorthodox theology was reconciled with his philosophy and demonstrates that Leibniz was not a typical Lutheran: the solutions he sought to the problems of confessional division were more philosophical than theological, and his view of sacred history was intended to vindicate his theodicy. Leibniz's unique integration of theology into philosophy proved satisfactory neither to theologians nor to many philosophers of his time. This study delves into a wealth of previously unexplored material, and includes the first-ever English translation of the Unvorgreiffliches Bedencken. It will be an important contribution to the history of ideas, and to understanding Leibniz's place in the mainstream Protestant theology of his time"--
Download or read book Leibniz Body Substance Monad written by Daniel Garber and published by Oxford University Press on Demand. This book was released on 2009-07-09 with total page 451 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Daniel Garber presents a study of Leibniz's conception of the physical world, elucidating his puzzling metaphysics of monads, mind-like simple substances. Tracing the development of Leibniz's thought, Garber shows how dealing with problems about the physical world led him to a world of animate creatures, and finally to a world of monads.
