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Full Idea
It must not be said that each portion of matter is animated, just as we do not say that a pond full of fishes is an animated body, although a fish is.
Gist of Idea
Not all of matter is animated, any more than a pond full of living fish is animated
Source
Gottfried Leibniz (Principle of Life and Plastic Natures [1705], p.190)
Book Ref
Leibniz,Gottfried: 'Leibniz Selections', ed/tr. Wiener,Philip P. [Scribners 1951], p.190
A Reaction
This is a particularly clear picture of the role of monads in matter. Monads are attached to bodies, which are entirely inanimate, but monads suffuse matter and give it its properties, like particularly bubbly champagne. Cf Idea 19422.
Related Idea
Idea 19422 Every particle of matter contains organic bodies [Leibniz]
| 19416 | Not all of matter is animated, any more than a pond full of living fish is animated [Leibniz] |
| 19417 | All substances are in harmony, even though separate, so they must have one divine cause [Leibniz] |
| 19418 | Mechanics shows that all motion originates in other motion, so there is a Prime Mover [Leibniz] |
| 19420 | Death and generation are just transformations of an animal, augmented or diminished [Leibniz] |
| 19419 | Not all of perception is accompanied by consciousness [Leibniz] |
| 19421 | Souls act as if there were no bodies, and bodies act as if there were no souls [Leibniz] |
| 19422 | Every particle of matter contains organic bodies [Leibniz] |