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| 19404 | Necessities rest on contradiction, and contingencies on sufficient reason |
| Full Idea: The principle of contradiction is the principle of necessity, and the principle that a sufficient reason must be given is the principle of contingency. | |||
| From: Gottfried Leibniz (On Sufficient Reason [1686], p.95) | |||
| A reaction: [this paragraph is actually undated] Contradictions occur in concrete actuality, as well as in theories and formal systems. If so, then there are necessities in nature. Are they discoverable a posteriori? Leibniz says not. |
| 19403 | Each of the infinite possible worlds has its own laws, and the individuals contain those laws |
| Full Idea: As there are an infinity of possible worlds, there are also an infinity of laws, some proper to one, another to another, and each possible individual of any world contains in its own notion the laws of its world. | |||
| From: Gottfried Leibniz (On Sufficient Reason [1686], p.95) | |||
| A reaction: Hence Leibniz is not really a scientific essentialist, in that he doesn't think the laws arise out of the nature of the matter consituting the world. I wonder if the primitive matter of bodies which attaches to the monads is the same in each world? |