more from this thinker
|
more from this text
Single Idea 12722
[filed under theme 8. Modes of Existence / C. Powers and Dispositions / 4. Powers as Essence
]
Full Idea
I believe that our thought is completed and terminated more in the notion of the dynamic [i.e. force] than in that of extension.
Gist of Idea
Thought terminates in force, rather than extension
Source
Gottfried Leibniz (Letters to Burcher De Volder [1706], G II 170), quoted by Daniel Garber - Leibniz:Body,Substance,Monad 4
Book Ref
Garber,Daniel: 'Leibniz: Body, Substance, Monad' [OUP 2009], p.164
A Reaction
Presenting this as the place where 'our thought' is 'terminated' seems to place it as mainly having a role in explanation, rather than in speculative metaphysics.
The
24 ideas
with the same theme
[powers as giving the essential nature of each thing]:
15658
|
The hidden harmony is stronger than the visible
[Heraclitus]
|
16752
|
Sight is the essence of the eye, fitting its definition; the eye itself is just the matter
[Aristotle]
|
16753
|
Giving the function of a house defines its actuality
[Aristotle]
|
17206
|
The essence of a thing is its effort to persevere
[Spinoza]
|
15976
|
What is the texture - the real essence - which makes substances behave in distinct ways?
[Locke]
|
12750
|
The question is whether force is self-sufficient in bodies, and essential, or dependent on something
[Lenfant]
|
12714
|
The substantial form is the principle of action or the primitive force of acting
[Leibniz]
|
5056
|
Material or immaterial substances cannot be conceived without their essential activity
[Leibniz]
|
13168
|
My formal unifying atoms are substantial forms, which are forces like appetites
[Leibniz]
|
13169
|
I call Aristotle's entelechies 'primitive forces', which originate activity
[Leibniz]
|
12722
|
Thought terminates in force, rather than extension
[Leibniz]
|
12778
|
There is active and passive power in the substantial chain and in the essence of a composite
[Leibniz]
|
12783
|
Primitive force is what gives a composite its reality
[Leibniz]
|
13095
|
Essence is primitive force, or a law of change
[Leibniz]
|
12713
|
Forms have sensation and appetite, the latter being the ability to act on other bodies
[Leibniz, by Garber]
|
13087
|
The essence of a thing is its real possibilities
[Leibniz, by Cover/O'Leary-Hawthorne]
|
12050
|
Substances contain a source of change or principle of activity
[Wiggins]
|
16755
|
The possible Aristotelian view that forms are real and active principles is clearly wrong
[Fine,K, by Pasnau]
|
21350
|
If properties are powers, then causal relations are internal relations
[Heil]
|
12256
|
We need to distinguish the essential from the non-essential powers
[Oderberg]
|
16767
|
There is no centralised power, but we still need essence for a metaphysical understanding
[Pasnau]
|
17954
|
Essence is a thing's necessities, but what about its possibilities (which may not be realised)?
[Vetter]
|
23711
|
A power is a property which consists entirely of dispositions
[Friend/Kimpton-Nye]
|
23712
|
Powers are qualitative properties which fully ground dispositions
[Friend/Kimpton-Nye]
|