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Philosophical Writings Leibniz (Everyman's Library (Paper))

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This book is a collection of various texts by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716). Leibniz was a first-class mathematician, and also a first-class philosopher. In mathematics, in parallel with and independently of Newton, he developed infinitesimal calculus, the indispensable instrument of modern science. In philosophy, he published, in 1710, in French, one chief work: "Essay on Theodicy, the Goodness of God, Man's Freedom and the Origin of Evil". The most important of his philosophical works were published at various times after his death: the Discourse on Metaphysics was published in 1846, and most of his esoteric texts on metaphysical issues were published in as late as 1903 (L. Couturat, Opuscules et fragments inedits de Leibniz) and 1948 (G. Grua, G. W. Leibniz, Textes inedits). Leibniz wrote scarcely, if at all, in his native languague, German. He preferred to write in Latin or French. This volume contains selections, in translation, from many of his chief works, including some outstanding texts from the 1903 Couturat edition. These include a text on "Necessary and Contingent Truths" and "A Letter on Freedom". Leibniz distinguished truths (statements) into necessary, i.e., mathematical or logical truths, and contingent or existential truths. Those truths are necessary whose opposite is self-contradictory, i.e., impossible. On the other hand, contingent truths are those whose opposite is not self-contradictory, and therefore possible. Examples of necessary truths are given from arithmetic, while examples of existential truths are "that I am now alive, that the sun is shining". Leibniz develops, based on this distinction, a superb metaphysical theory on the structure of causation and of the freedom of the will. The importance of these excerpts can hardly be overemphasized, and for these texts alone the book should be worth possessing. This volume also contains excerpts from better known texts by Leibniz, such as The Monadology, The Discourse on Metaphysics, and Leibniz's correspondence with Arnauld and with Clarke. Leibniz is a superb and original thinker in philosophy, as he is in science and in mathematics. His style is crisp and dry, not lofty and poetical as is the style of his contemporary B. Spinoza. The great metaphysical questions (free will, predestination, God and man) are attacked mercilessly and unto their ultimate logical conlusions. Leibniz's full awareness of the scientific achievements of his epoch, makes him a thoroughly modern thinker, up to this present time.