more on this theme | more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
Essences exist in the divine understanding before one considers will.
Gist of Idea
Essences exist in the divine understanding
Source
Gottfried Leibniz (Letters to Antoine Arnauld [1686], 1686.07.4/14 X)
Book Ref
Leibniz,Gottfried: 'The Leibniz-Arnauld Correspondence', ed/tr. Mason,HT/Parkinson,GHR [Manchester UP 1967], p.55
A Reaction
This is a sort of religious neo-platonism. The great dream seems to be that of mind-reading God, and the result is either Pythagoras (it's numbers!), or Plato (it's pure ideas!), or this (it's essences!). See D.H.Lawrence's poem on geranium and mignottes.