more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
Space is a relationship: an order, not only among existents, but also among possibles as though they existed.
Gist of Idea
Space is an order among actual and possible things
Source
Gottfried Leibniz (New Essays on Human Understanding [1704], 2.13)
Book Ref
Leibniz,Gottfried: 'New Essays on Human Understanding', ed/tr. Remnant/Bennett [CUP 1996], p.149
A Reaction
The modal end to this idea is a bit puzzling. Would there be any space if there were only possibles, and nothing yet existed, as in God's mind the instant before he got to work?
| 1511 | If everything is in a place, what is the place in? Place doesn't exist [Zeno of Elea, by Simplicius] |
| 5098 | Place is not shape, or matter, or extension between limits; it is the limits of a body [Aristotle] |
| 15980 | We can locate the parts of the universe, but not the whole thing [Locke] |
| 12952 | Space is an order among actual and possible things [Leibniz] |
| 18219 | Relational space is problematic if you take the idea of a field seriously [Field,H] |
| 22928 | For relationists moving an object beyond the edge of space creates new space [Le Poidevin] |
| 4228 | If space is entirely relational, what makes a boundary, or a place unoccupied by physical objects? [Lowe] |
| 21190 | 'Space' in physics just means location [Hesketh] |