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Ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'New System and Explanation of New System' and 'De Natura Corporis'

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8. Modes of Existence / C. Powers and Dispositions / 2. Powers as Basic

12710	As well as extension, bodies contain powers [Leibniz]
	Full Idea: Over and above what can be deduced from extension, we must add and recognise in bodies certain notions or forms that are immaterial, so to speak, or independent of extension, which you can call powers [potentia], by which speed is adjusted to magnitude.
	From: Gottfried Leibniz (De Natura Corporis [1678], A6.4.1980), quoted by Daniel Garber - Leibniz:Body,Substance,Monad 3
	A reaction: He boldly asserts that the powers are 'immaterial', but is then forced to qualify it (as he often does) with 'so to speak'. The notion that bodies just have extension (occupy space) comes from Descartes, and is firmly opposed by Leibniz.