PhilosophyIdeas.com Database     |     Current Total Ideas: 22,104     |     home     |     back

Ideas from 'works' by Gottfried Leibniz [1690], by Theme Structure

green numbers give full details    |     back to texts     |     expand these ideas

1. Philosophy / C. History of Philosophy / 4. Later European Philosophy / b. Seventeenth century philosophy
19359 Leibniz aims to give coherent rational support for empiricism [Perkins]
1. Philosophy / E. Nature of Metaphysics / 1. Nature of Metaphysics
13086 Metaphysics is a science of the intelligible nature of being [Cover/O'Leary-Hawthorne]
1. Philosophy / E. Nature of Metaphysics / 4. Metaphysics as Science
16710 Leibniz tried to combine mechanistic physics with scholastic metaphysics [Pasnau]
2. Reason / A. Nature of Reason / 1. On Reason
16897 Reason is the faculty for grasping apriori necessary truths [Burge]
2. Reason / A. Nature of Reason / 4. Aims of Reason
3346 For Leibniz rationality is based on non-contradiction and the principle of sufficient reason [Benardete,JA]
2. Reason / B. Laws of Thought / 2. Sufficient Reason
3347 Leibniz said the principle of sufficient reason is synthetic a priori, since its denial is not illogical [Benardete,JA]
2. Reason / E. Argument / 6. Conclusive Proof
8627 Leibniz is inclined to regard all truths as provable [Frege]
6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 4. Using Numbers / a. Units
9147 Number cannot be defined as addition of ones, since that needs the number; it is a single act of abstraction [Fine,K]
6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 5. The Infinite / j. Infinite divisibility
19375 The continuum is not divided like sand, but folded like paper [Arthur,R]
6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 5. The Infinite / k. Infinitesimals
18081 Nature uses the infinite everywhere
18080 A tangent is a line connecting two points on a curve that are infinitely close together
7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 6. Fundamentals / c. Monads
7565 Leibniz proposes monads, since there must be basic things, which are immaterial in order to have unity [Jolley]
8. Modes of Existence / A. Relations / 1. Nature of Relations
10419 If relations can be reduced to, or supervene on, monadic properties of relata, they are not real [Swoyer]
13078 Relations aren't in any monad, so they are distributed, so they are not real
8. Modes of Existence / C. Powers and Dispositions / 4. Powers as Essence
12713 Forms have sensation and appetite, the latter being the ability to act on other bodies [Garber]
13087 The essence of a thing is its real possibilities [Cover/O'Leary-Hawthorne]
9. Objects / A. Existence of Objects / 5. Individuation / a. Individuation
12701 Leibniz moved from individuation by whole entity to individuation by substantial form [Garber]
9. Objects / A. Existence of Objects / 5. Individuation / d. Individuation by haecceity
13105 The laws-of-the-series plays a haecceitist role [Cover/O'Leary-Hawthorne]
9. Objects / B. Unity of Objects / 1. Unifying an Object / a. Intrinsic unification
16513 Identity of a substance is the law of its persistence
9. Objects / B. Unity of Objects / 1. Unifying an Object / c. Unity as conceptual
12035 Leibniz bases pure primitive entities on conjunctions of qualitative properties [Adams,RM]
9. Objects / B. Unity of Objects / 2. Substance / d. Substance defined
13091 Leibnizian substances add concept, law, force, form and soul [Cover/O'Leary-Hawthorne]
7561 Substances are essentially active [Jolley]
9. Objects / C. Structure of Objects / 2. Hylomorphism / c. Form as causal
12715 Leibniz strengthened hylomorphism by connecting it to force in physics [Garber]
9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 9. Essence and Properties
11878 Leibniz's view (that all properties are essential) is extreme essentialism, not its denial [Mackie,P]
9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 15. Against Essentialism
11862 Leibniz was not an essentialist [Wiggins]
9. Objects / F. Identity among Objects / 7. Indiscernible Objects
16504 Two eggs can't be identical, because the same truths can't apply to both of them
9. Objects / F. Identity among Objects / 9. Sameness
8650 Things are the same if one can be substituted for the other without loss of truth
10. Modality / A. Necessity / 2. Nature of Necessity
13828 Necessary truths are those provable from identities by pure logic in finite steps [Hacking]
10. Modality / B. Possibility / 1. Possibility
13084 How can things be incompatible, if all positive terms seem to be compatible?
10. Modality / B. Possibility / 5. Contingency
4307 A reason must be given why contingent beings should exist rather than not exist
10. Modality / E. Possible worlds / 1. Possible Worlds / a. Possible worlds
15883 Leibniz narrows down God's options to one, by non-contradiction, sufficient reason, indiscernibles, compossibility [Harré]
18822 Each monad expresses all its compatible monads; a possible world is the resulting equivalence class [Rumfitt]
7837 Leibniz proposed possible worlds, because they might be evil, where God would not create evil things [Stewart,M]
10. Modality / E. Possible worlds / 3. Transworld Objects / c. Counterparts
13080 Leibniz has a counterpart view of de re counterfactuals [Cover/O'Leary-Hawthorne]
11. Knowledge Aims / A. Knowledge / 2. Understanding
19332 For Leibniz, divine understanding grasps every conceivable possibility [Perkins]
11. Knowledge Aims / C. Knowing Reality / 3. Idealism / a. Idealism
5509 Leibniz said dualism of mind and body is illusion, and there is only mind [Martin/Barresi]
7568 Leibniz is an idealist insofar as the basic components of his universe are all mental [Jolley]
14. Science / D. Explanation / 2. Types of Explanation / k. Explanations by essence
13092 The essence of substance is the law of its changes, as in the series of numbers
15. Nature of Minds / B. Features of Minds / 1. Consciousness / a. Consciousness
19354 Leibniz introduced the idea of degrees of consciousness, essential for his monads [Perkins]
16. Persons / F. Free Will / 6. Determinism / a. Determinism
7841 We think we are free because the causes of the will are unknown; determinism is a false problem
17. Mind and Body / A. Mind-Body Dualism / 3. Panpsychism
5510 Leibniz has a panpsychist view that physical points are spiritual [Martin/Barresi]
17. Mind and Body / A. Mind-Body Dualism / 4. Occasionalism
7564 Occasionalism give a false view of natural laws, miracles, and substances [Jolley]
18. Thought / D. Concepts / 2. Origin of Concepts / a. Origin of concepts
19372 Concepts are ordered, and show eternal possibilities, deriving from God [Arthur,R]
19. Language / A. Nature of Meaning / 7. Meaning Holism / a. Sentence meaning
13467 Leibniz was the first modern to focus on sentence-sized units (where empiricists preferred word-size) [Hart,WD]
20. Action / B. Preliminaries of Action / 2. Willed Action / d. Weakness of will
19365 Limited awareness leads to bad choices, and unconscious awareness makes us choose the bad [Perkins]
21. Aesthetics / A. Aesthetic Experience / 4. Beauty
8110 Leibniz identified beauty with intellectual perfection [Gardner]
22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 1. Nature of Ethics / g. Moral responsibility
7569 Humans are moral, and capable of reward and punishment, because of memory and self-consciousness [Jolley]
25. Social Practice / D. Justice / 2. The Law / c. Natural law
7574 Natural law theory is found in Aquinas, in Leibniz, and at the Nuremberg trials [Jolley]
26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 6. Early Matter Theories / g. Atomism
12728 Leibniz rejected atoms, because they must be elastic, and hence have parts [Garber]
19374 Microscopes and the continuum suggest that matter is endlessly divisible
26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 7. Later Matter Theories / a. Early Modern matter
7560 Leibniz struggled to reconcile bodies with a reality of purely soul-like entities [Jolley]
26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 7. Later Matter Theories / c. Matter as extension
16683 Leibniz eventually said resistance, rather than extension, was the essence of body [Pasnau]
26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 8. Scientific Essentialism / c. Essence and laws
12725 Leibniz wanted to explain motion and its laws by the nature of body [Garber]
16507 The law within something fixes its persistence, and accords with general laws of nature
26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 10. Closure of Physics
7859 Leibniz had an unusual commitment to the causal completeness of physics [Papineau]
27. Natural Reality / A. Classical Physics / 1. Mechanics / c. Forces
15307 Leibniz uses 'force' to mean both activity and potential
28. God / B. Proving God / 2. Proofs of Reason / a. Ontological Proof
3889 God's existence is either necessary or impossible [Scruton]
28. God / C. Attitudes to God / 5. Atheism
7842 Leibniz was closer than Spinoza to atheism [Stewart,M]