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Full Idea
Death, like generation, is only the transformation of the same animal, which is sometimes augmented and sometimes diminished.
Gist of Idea
Death and generation are just transformations of an animal, augmented or diminished
Source
Gottfried Leibniz (Principle of Life and Plastic Natures [1705], p.195)
Book Ref
Leibniz,Gottfried: 'Leibniz Selections', ed/tr. Wiener,Philip P. [Scribners 1951], p.195
A Reaction
Leibniz has a very unusual view of death, since neither minds nor their bodies can ever be wholly destroyed. Death is a kind of shrinking. I suspect that he was wrong about that.
| 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] |