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Single Idea 12727

[from 'Paper of December 1676' by Gottfried Leibniz, in 17. Mind and Body / A. Mind-Body Dualism / 7. Zombies ]

Full Idea

If it could be supposed that a body exists without a mind, then a man would do everything in the same way as if he did not have a mind, and men would speak and write the same things, without knowing what they do. ...But this supposition is impossible.

Gist of Idea

It's impossible, but imagine a body carrying on normally, but with no mind

Source

Gottfried Leibniz (Paper of December 1676 [1676], A6.3.400), quoted by Daniel Garber - Leibniz:Body,Substance,Monad 5

Book Reference

Garber,Daniel: 'Leibniz: Body, Substance, Monad' [OUP 2009], p.196


A Reaction

This is clearly the zombie dream, three centuries before Robert Kirk's modern invention of the idea. Leibniz's reason for denying the possibility of zombies won't be the modern physicalist reason.