more from Gottfried Leibniz

Single Idea 7843

[catalogued under 7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 6. Fundamentals / c. Monads]

Full Idea

Can you really maintain that a drop of urine is an infinity of monads, and that each one of these has ideas, however obscure, of the entire universe?

Gist of Idea

Is a drop of urine really an infinity of thinking monads?

Source

comment on Gottfried Leibniz (Monadology [1716]) by Francois-Marie Voltaire - works Vol 22:434

Book Reference

Stewart,Matthew: 'The Courtier and the Heretic' [Yale 2007], p.308


A Reaction

Monads are a bit like Christian theology - if you meet them cold they seem totally ridiculous, but if you meet them after ten years of careful preliminary study they make (apparently) complete sense. Defenders of panpsychism presumably like them.