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Single Idea 1414

[from 'New Essays on Human Understanding' by Gottfried Leibniz, in 28. God / A. Divine Nature / 3. Divine Perfections ]

Full Idea

I call every simple quality which is positive and absolute, or expresses whatever it expresses without any limits, a perfection. But a quality of this sort, because it is simple, is therefore irresolvable or indefinable.

Clarification

'Irresolvable' means cannot be broken into parts

Gist of Idea

A perfection is a simple quality, which is positive and absolute, and has no limit

Source

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

Book Reference

'The Existence of God', ed/tr. Hick,John [Macmillan 1964], p.37


A Reaction

I don't think this definition of perfections would have occurred to anyone who wasn't planning to prove that perfections cannot be incompatible (as Leibniz is about to do).

Related Idea

Idea 21252 Perfections must have overlapping parts if their incompatibility is to be proved [Leibniz]