back to ideas for this text


Single Idea 13008

[from 'New Essays on Human Understanding' by Gottfried Leibniz, in 6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 2. Geometry ]

Full Idea

What I value most in geometry, considered as a contemplative study, is its letting us glimpse the true source of eternal truths and of the way in which we can come to grasp their necessity, which is something confused sensory images cannot reveal.

Gist of Idea

Geometry, unlike sensation, lets us glimpse eternal truths and their necessity

Source

Gottfried Leibniz (New Essays on Human Understanding [1704], 4.12)

Book Reference

Leibniz,Gottfried: 'New Essays on Human Understanding', ed/tr. Remnant/Bennett [CUP 1996], p.452


A Reaction

This is strikingly straight out of Plato. We should not underestimate this idea, though nowadays it is with us, but with geometry replaced by mathematical logic.