Single Idea 12732

[catalogued under 10. Modality / C. Sources of Modality / 2. Necessity as Primitive]

Full Idea

There is a difference between truths whose necessity is brute and geometric and those truths which have their source in fitness and final causes.

Gist of Idea

Some necessary truths are brute, and others derive from final causes

Source

Gottfried Leibniz (Letters to Remond de Montmort [1715], 1715.06.22/G III 645), quoted by Daniel Garber - Leibniz:Body,Substance,Monad 6

Book Reference

Garber,Daniel: 'Leibniz: Body, Substance, Monad' [OUP 2009], p.236


A Reaction

The second one is a necessity deriving from God's wisdom. Strictly it could have been otherwise, unlike 'geometrical' necessity, which is utterly fixed.