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Full Idea
I don't say that bodies like flint, which are commonly called inanimate, have perceptions and appetition; rather they have something of that sort in them, like worms are in cheese.
Gist of Idea
A piece of flint contains something resembling perceptions and appetites
Source
Gottfried Leibniz (Letters to Johann Bernoulli [1699], 1698.12.17)
Book Ref
Leibniz,Gottfried: 'Philosophical Essays', ed/tr. Arlew,R /Garber,D [Hackett 1989], p.169
A Reaction
Leibniz is caricatured as thinking that stones are full of little active minds, but he nearly always says that what he is proposing is 'like' or 'analogous to' that. His only real point is that nature is active, as seen in the appetites of animals.
13172 | What we cannot imagine may still exist [Leibniz] |
13173 | Death is just the contraction of an animal [Leibniz] |
13174 | A piece of flint contains something resembling perceptions and appetites [Leibniz] |
13175 | Entelechies are analogous to souls, as other minds are analogous to our own minds [Leibniz] |