Single Idea 12931

[catalogued under 9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 3. Individual Essences]

Full Idea

The reasons for particular truths rest wholly on the more general ones of which they are mere instances.

Gist of Idea

Particular truths are just instances of general truths

Source

Gottfried Leibniz (New Essays on Human Understanding [1704], 1.01)

Book Reference

Leibniz,Gottfried: 'New Essays on Human Understanding', ed/tr. Remnant/Bennett [CUP 1996], p.83


A Reaction

Clearly particulars have their own distinctive truth, but the Leibniz case seems to be that a particular is a unique intersection for an array of general truths - and nothing else. Audrey Hepburn's smile has no generalities to it.