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Single Idea 4642

[filed under theme 2. Reason / B. Laws of Thought / 2. Sufficient Reason ]

Full Idea

The principle of sufficient reason says no fact can be real or existing and no proposition can be true unless there is a sufficient reason why it should be thus and not otherwise, even though in most cases these reasons cannot be known to us.

Gist of Idea

No fact can be real and no proposition true unless there is a Sufficient Reason (even if we can't know it)

Source

Gottfried Leibniz (Monadology [1716], §32)

Book Ref

Leibniz,Gottfried: 'Philosophical Writings', ed/tr. Parkinson,G.H.R. [Dent 1973], p.184

A Reaction

I think of this as my earliest philosophical perception, a childish rebellion against being told that there was 'no reason' for something. My intuition tells me that it is correct, and the foundation of ontology and truth. Don't ask me to justify it!

The 23 ideas with the same theme [claim that there is a reason for everything]:

1496 The earth is stationary, because it is in the centre, and has no more reason to move one way than another [Anaximander, by Aristotle]
20910 Everything happens necessarily, and for a reason [Democritus]
306 Nothing can come to be without a cause [Plato]
5969 Chrysippus said the uncaused is non-existent [Chrysippus, by Plutarch]
4819 There is necessarily for each existent thing a cause why it should exist [Spinoza]
4642 No fact can be real and no proposition true unless there is a Sufficient Reason (even if we can't know it) [Leibniz]
5042 For every event it is possible for an omniscient being to give a reason for its occurrence [Leibniz]
2098 The principle of sufficient reason is needed if we are to proceed from maths to physics [Leibniz]
3646 There is always a reason why things are thus rather than otherwise [Leibniz]
2104 No reason could limit the quantity of matter, so there is no limit [Leibniz]
3347 Leibniz said the principle of sufficient reason is synthetic a priori, since its denial is not illogical [Leibniz, by Benardete,JA]
18241 Sufficient reason is implied by contradiction, of an insufficient possible which exists [Wolff, by Korsgaard]
19807 Both nature and reason require that everything has a cause [Rousseau]
5563 The principle of sufficient reason is the ground of possible experience in time [Kant]
5565 Proof of the principle of sufficient reason cannot be found [Kant]
23232 Sufficient reason makes the transition from the particular to the general [Fichte]
19661 Making sufficient reason an absolute devalues the principle of non-contradiction [Hegel, by Meillassoux]
4187 'There is nothing without a reason why it should be rather than not be' (a generalisation of 'Why?') [Schopenhauer]
21918 Sufficient Reason can't be proved, because all proof presupposes it [Schopenhauer, by Lewis,PB]
4643 The Principle of Sufficient Reason does not presuppose that all explanations will be causal explanations [Baggini /Fosl]
19666 If we insist on Sufficient Reason the world will always be a mystery to us [Meillassoux]
14018 Is Sufficient Reason self-refuting (no reason to accept it!), or is it a legitimate explanatory tool? [Bourne]
17263 Why do rationalists accept Sufficient Reason, when it denies the existence of fundamental facts? [Correia/Schnieder]