Customer Reviews

Leibniz Selection (The Modern student's library)

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This volume is an excellent companion volume to the selection of Leibniz's writings published by the Hackett Publishing Company: Philosophical Essays. [It will not let me link to the paperback version but there is a cheap paperback version available].

There are some important letters in the volume put out by Hackett Publishing Company that are not in the volume edited by Philip P. Wiener (like the letters to Arnauld) and there are quite a few essays in the volume edited by Philip P. Wiener that are not in the volume put out by Hackett (and the two volumes together are much cheaper than buying the Philosophical Papers and Letters put out by Springer which probably contains everything in the Hackett and Wiener volumes but has a price tag of over a hundred dollars).

I purchased the selection by Wiener in the hopes that it would have the essay 'Metaphysical Foundations of Mathematics' and was pleased to see that it did. In case anyone else is wondering whether to purchase this book in the hopes that it contains a particular essay or selection I decided I would provide a list of the table of contents for any interested reader (unfortunately since Leibniz tended to write fairly short essays, and this book is 600 pages long, the table of contents will be quite long):

I. On Method

1. From Elements of Law and Justice (1669-1670)
2. On the Method of Universality (1674)
2a. General Geometry and the Method of Universals (1674)
3. Dialogue on the Connection Between Things and Words (1677)
4. Preface to the General Science (1677)
5. Towards a Universal Characteristic (1677)
5a. Principles of Logical Calculus (c. 1679)
6. Precepts for Advancing the Sciences and Arts (1680)
7. Discourse Touching on the Method of Certitude and the Art of Discovery
8. The Art of Discovery (1685)
9. On True Method in Philosophy and Theology (c. 1686)
10. On a General Principle Useful for the Explanation of the Laws of Nature (Letter to Bayle, 1687)
11. On Some Philosophical Axioms and Mathematical Fictions (Letter to Foucher, 1692)
12. The Horizon of Human Doctrine
13. On Wisdom (c. 1693)
14. On the Logic of Probability (1704, 1714)
15. On Geometrical Method and the Method of Metaphysics (1712)

II. First Principles: Foundations of the Sciences

1. On Aristotle's and Descartes' Theories of Matter: Fragment (c. 1677)
2. The Exigency to Exist in Essences: Principle of Plenitude
2a. The Principle of Sufficient Reason
2b. Identity in the Individual Substances and True Propositions (1686)
2c. On the Actual Infinite
3. Whether the Essence of a Body Consists in Extension (1691)
3a. Further Discussion of the Same Subject (1693, 1697)
4. New System of Nature (1695) and Second Explanation of the New System (1695)
5. Specimen Dynamicum (1695)
6. On Nature in Itself (1698)
7. On Substance as Active Force (Vis Viva) vs Mere Extension (Letters to De Volder, 1699-1703)
7a. Further Discussion of Vis Viva (Letter to Bayle, 1702)
8. On the Principle of Continuity (Letter to Varignon, 1702)
8a. Further Discussion of Continuity (Letter to Remond de Montmort, 1715)
9. Considerations on the Principle of Life, and on Plastic Natures, by the Author of the Pre-established Harmony (1705)
10. On Biology and Geology (From Letter to Bourguet, 1714)
11. Metaphysical Foundations of Mathematics (1715)
12. Newton's Mathematical Principles of Philosophy (Letters to Samuel Clarke, 1715-1716)

III. Theory of Knowledge and Metaphysics

1. What is an Idea? (c. 1676)
2. Reflections on Knowledge, Truth, and Ideas (1684)
3. Discourse on Metaphysics (1686)
4. On the Ultimate Origin of Things (1697)
5. On the Supersensible Element in Knowledge and the Immaterial in Nature (1702)
6. New Essays on the Understanding (1704)
7. On Necessity and Contingency (Letter to Coste, 1707)
8. Refutation of Spinoza (c. 1708)
9. Remarks on Malebranche's Opinion that We See All Things in God, with References to Locke's Examination of It (c. 1708)
10. On the Active Force of Body, On the Soul and on the Soul of Brutes (Letter to Wagner, 1710)
11. The Theodicy: Abridgement (1710)
12. Principles of Nature and of Grace (1714)
13. Monadology (1714)
14. On the Doctrine of Malebranche (Letter to Remond de Montmort, 1715)

IV. Ethics, Law, and Civilization

1. On the Notions of Right and Justice
2. Ethical Definitions (1697-1698)
3. On Destiny or Mutual Dependence
4. New Proposals
5. Essay on a New Plan of a Certain Science
6. An Odd Thought Concerning a New Sort of Exhibition (1675)
7. On an Academy of Arts and Sciences (Letter to Peter the Great, 1716)

-Brian