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Single Idea 5025

[from 'Discourse on Metaphysics' by Gottfried Leibniz, in 17. Mind and Body / A. Mind-Body Dualism / 4. Occasionalism ]

Full Idea

It is inconceivable that mind and body should have any influence on one another, and it is unreasonable simply to have recourse to the extraordinary operation of the universal cause in a matter which is ordinary and particular.

Clarification

By 'universal cause' he means God

Gist of Idea

Mind and body can't influence one another, but God wouldn't intervene in the daily routine

Source

Gottfried Leibniz (Discourse on Metaphysics [1686], §33)

Book Reference

Leibniz,Gottfried: 'Philosophical Writings', ed/tr. Parkinson,G.H.R. [Dent 1973], p.42


A Reaction

Leibniz was the ultimate intellectual contortionist! Here he is rejecting Cartesian interactionism, and also Malebranche's Occasionalism (God bridges the gap), in order to prepare for his own (daft) theory of what is now called Parallelism.