The Science of the Individual: Leibniz's Ontology of Individual Substance

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Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 9781402032592
Total Pages : 432 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (325 download)

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Book Synopsis The Science of the Individual: Leibniz's Ontology of Individual Substance by : Stefano Bella

Download or read book The Science of the Individual: Leibniz's Ontology of Individual Substance written by Stefano Bella and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2005-05-10 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his well-known Discourse on Metaphysics, Leibniz puts individual substance at the basis of metaphysical building. In so doing, he connects himself to a venerable tradition. His theory of individual concept, however, breaks with another idea of the same tradition, that no account of the individual as such can be given. Contrary to what has been commonly accepted, Leibniz’s intuitions are not the mere result of the transcription of subject-predicate logic, nor of the uncritical persistence of some old metaphysical assumptions. They grow, instead, from an unprejudiced inquiry about our basic ontological framework, where logic of truth, linguistic analysis, and phenomenological experience of the mind’s life are tightly interwoven. Leibniz’s struggle for a concept capable of grasping concrete individuals as such is pursued in an age of great paradigm changes – from the Scholastic background to Hobbes’s nominalism to the Cartesian ‘way of ideas’ or Spinoza’s substance metaphysics – when the relationships among words, ideas and things are intensively discussed and wholly reshaped. This is the context where the genesis and significance of Leibniz’s theory of ‘complete being’ and its concept are reconstrued. The result is a fresh look at some of the most perplexing issues in Leibniz scholarship, like his ideas about individual identity and the thesis that all its properties are essential to an individual. The questions Leibniz faces, and to which his theory of individual substance aims to answer, are yet, to a large extent, those of contemporary metaphysics: how to trace a categorial framework? How to distinguish concrete and abstract items? What is the metaphysical basis of linguistic predication? How is trans-temporal sameness assured? How to make sense of essential attributions? In this ontological framework Leibniz’s further questions about the destiny of human individuals and their history are spelt out. Maybe his answers also have something to tell us. This book is aimed at all who are interested in Leibniz’s philosophy, history of early modern philosophy and metaphysical issues in their historical development.

The Oxford Handbook of Leibniz

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Publisher : Oxford Handbooks
ISBN 13 : 0199744726
Total Pages : 825 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (997 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of Leibniz by : Maria Rosa Antognazza

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Leibniz written by Maria Rosa Antognazza and published by Oxford Handbooks. This book was released on 2018 with total page 825 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume provides a uniquely comprehensive, systematic, and up-to-date appraisal of Leibniz's thought thematically organized around its diverse but interrelated aspects. By pulling together the best specialized work in the many domains to which Leibniz contributed, its ambition is to offer the most rounded picture of Leibniz's endeavors currently available.

Leibniz: Body, Substance, Monad

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Publisher : Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN 13 : 019956664X
Total Pages : 451 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (995 download)

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Book Synopsis Leibniz: Body, Substance, Monad by : Daniel Garber

Download or read book Leibniz: Body, Substance, Monad written by Daniel Garber and published by Oxford University Press on Demand. This book was released on 2009-07-09 with total page 451 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Daniel Garber presents a study of Leibniz's conception of the physical world, elucidating his puzzling metaphysics of monads, mind-like simple substances. Tracing the development of Leibniz's thought, Garber shows how dealing with problems about the physical world led him to a world of animate creatures, and finally to a world of monads.

Tercentenary Essays on the Philosophy and Science of Leibniz

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Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319388304
Total Pages : 357 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (193 download)

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Book Synopsis Tercentenary Essays on the Philosophy and Science of Leibniz by : Lloyd Strickland

Download or read book Tercentenary Essays on the Philosophy and Science of Leibniz written by Lloyd Strickland and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-11-15 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents new research into key areas of the work of German philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716). Reflecting various aspects of Leibniz’s thought, this book offers a collection of original research arranged into four separate themes: Science, Metaphysics, Epistemology, and Religion and Theology. With in-depth articles by experts such as Maria Rosa Antognazza, Nicholas Jolley, Agustín Echavarría, Richard Arthur and Paul Lodge, this book is an invaluable resource not only for readers just beginning to discover Leibniz, but also for scholars long familiar with his philosophy and eager to gain new perspectives on his work.

Leibniz on Time, Space, and Relativity

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 019266560X
Total Pages : 421 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (926 download)

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Book Synopsis Leibniz on Time, Space, and Relativity by : Richard T. W. Arthur

Download or read book Leibniz on Time, Space, and Relativity written by Richard T. W. Arthur and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-12-16 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, Arthur gives fresh interpretations of Gottfried Leibniz's theories of time, space, and the relativity of motion, based on a thorough examination of Leibniz's manuscripts as well as his published papers. These are analysed in historical context, but also with an eye to their contemporary relevance. Leibniz's views on relativity have been extremely influential, first on Mach, and then on Einstein, while his novel approach to geometry in his analysis situs inspired many later developments in geometry. Arthur expounds the latter in some detail, explaining its relationship to Leibniz's metaphysics of space and the grounding of motion, and defending Leibniz's views on the relativity of motion against charges of inconsistency. The brilliance of his work on time, though, has not been so well appreciated, and Arthur attempts to remedy this through a detailed discussion of Leibniz's relational theory of time, showing how it underpins his theory of possible worlds, his complex account of contingency, and his highly original treatment of the continuity of time, providing formal treatments in an appendix. In other appendices, Arthur provides translations of previously untranslated writings by Leibniz on analysis situs and on Copernicanism, as well as an essay on Leibniz's philosophy of relations. In his introductory chapter he explains how the framework for the book is provided by the interpretation of Leibniz's metaphysics he defended in his earlier Monads, Composition, and Force (OUP 2018, winner of the 2019 annual JHP Book Prize for best book in the history of philosophy published in 2018).

The Early Modern Subject

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Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 019954249X
Total Pages : 498 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (995 download)

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Book Synopsis The Early Modern Subject by : Udo Thiel

Download or read book The Early Modern Subject written by Udo Thiel and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2011-09-29 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Udo Thiel presents a critical evaluation of the understanding of self-consciousness and personal identity in early modern philosophy. He explores over a century of European philosophical debate from Descartes to Hume, and argues that our interest in human subjectivity remains strongly influenced by the conceptual framework of early modern thought.

Leibniz's Final System

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1135989192
Total Pages : 252 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (359 download)

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Book Synopsis Leibniz's Final System by : Glenn A. Hartz

Download or read book Leibniz's Final System written by Glenn A. Hartz and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-10-19 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the first major work on realism in Leibniz's metaphysics, this key text demonstrates that it is not possible to maintain compatibility of phenomenalist and realist views – they must be understood as completely separate trends of thought in Leibniz.

Leibniz's Principle of Identity of Indiscernibles

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Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191022764
Total Pages : 298 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Leibniz's Principle of Identity of Indiscernibles by : Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra

Download or read book Leibniz's Principle of Identity of Indiscernibles written by Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2014-08-14 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra presents an original study of the place and role of the Identity of Indiscernibles in Leibniz's philosophy. The Principle of the Identity of Indiscernibles rules out numerically distinct but perfectly similar things; Leibniz derived it from more basic principles and used it to establish important philosophical theses. Rodriguez-Pereyra aims to establish what Leibniz meant by the Principle of Identity of Indiscernibles, what his arguments for and from it were, and to assess those arguments and Leibniz's claims about the Principle of Identity of Indiscernibles. He argues that Leibniz had a very strong version of the principle, according to which no possibilia (whether or not they belong to the same possible world) are intrinsically perfectly similar, where this excludes things that differ in magnitude alone. The book discusses Leibniz's arguments for the Identity of Indiscernibles in the Meditation on the Principle of the Individual, the Discourse on Metaphysics, Notationes Generales, Primary Truths, the letter to Casati of 1689, the correspondence with Clarke, as well as the use of the Identity of Indiscernibles in Leibniz's arguments against the Cartesian conception of the material world, atoms, absolute space and time, the Lockean conception of the mind as a tabula rasa, and freedom of indifference. Rodriguez-Pereyra argues that the Identity of Indiscernibles was a central but inessential principle of Leibniz's philosophy.

Thinking and Calculating

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Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030973034
Total Pages : 455 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (39 download)

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Book Synopsis Thinking and Calculating by : Francesco Ademollo

Download or read book Thinking and Calculating written by Francesco Ademollo and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-07-04 with total page 455 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume collects 22 essays on the history of logic written by outstanding specialists in the field. The book was originally prompted by the 2018-2019 celebrations in honor of Massimo Mugnai, a world-renowned historian of logic, whose contributions on Medieval and Modern logic, and to the understanding of the logical writings of Leibniz in particular, have shaped the field in the last four decades. Given the large number of recent contributions in the history of logic that have some connections or debts with Mugnai’s work, the editors have attempted to produce a volume showing the vastness of the development of logic throughout the centuries. We hope that such a volume may help both the specialist and the student to realize the complexity of the history of logic, the large array of problems that were touched by the discipline, and the manifold relations that logic entertained with other subjects in the course of the centuries. The contributions of the volume, in fact, span from Antiquity to the Modern Age, from semantics to linguistics and proof theory, from the discussion of technical problems to deep metaphysical questions, and in it the history of logic is kept in dialogue with the history of mathematics, economics, and the moral sciences at large.

Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy, Volume VIII

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Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0198829299
Total Pages : 323 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (988 download)

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Book Synopsis Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy, Volume VIII by : Daniel Garber

Download or read book Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy, Volume VIII written by Daniel Garber and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2019-01-03 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy is an annual series, presenting a selection of the best current work in the history of early modern philosophy. It focuses on the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries--the extraordinary period of intellectual flourishing that begins, very roughly, with Descartes and his contemporaries and ends with Kant. It also publishes papers on thinkers or movements outside of that framework, provided they are important in illuminating early modern thought. The articles in OSEMP will be of importance to specialists within the discipline, but the editors also intend that they should appeal to a larger audience of philosophers, intellectual historians, and others who are interested in the development of modern thought.

Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences

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Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3319310690
Total Pages : 2267 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (193 download)

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Book Synopsis Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences by : Dana Jalobeanu

Download or read book Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences written by Dana Jalobeanu and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-08-27 with total page 2267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Encyclopedia offers a fresh, integrated and creative perspective on the formation and foundations of philosophy and science in European modernity. Combining careful contextual reconstruction with arguments from traditional philosophy, the book examines methodological dimensions, breaks down traditional oppositions such as rationalism vs. empiricism, calls attention to gender issues, to ‘insiders and outsiders’, minor figures in philosophy, and underground movements, among many other topics. In addition, and in line with important recent transformations in the fields of history of science and early modern philosophy, the volume recognizes the specificity and significance of early modern science and discusses important developments including issues of historiography (such as historical epistemology), the interplay between the material culture and modes of knowledge, expert knowledge and craft knowledge. This book stands at the crossroads of different disciplines and combines their approaches – particularly the history of science, the history of philosophy, contemporary philosophy of science, and intellectual and cultural history. It brings together over 100 philosophers, historians of science, historians of mathematics, and medicine offering a comprehensive view of early modern philosophy and the sciences. It combines and discusses recent results from two very active fields: early modern philosophy and the history of (early modern) science. Editorial Board EDITORS-IN-CHIEF Dana Jalobeanu University of Bucharest, Romania Charles T. Wolfe Ghent University, Belgium ASSOCIATE EDITORS Delphine Bellis University Nijmegen, The Netherlands Zvi Biener University of Cincinnati, OH, USA Angus Gowland University College London, UK Ruth Hagengruber University of Paderborn, Germany Hiro Hirai Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands Martin Lenz University of Groningen, The Netherlands Gideon Manning CalTech, Pasadena, CA, USA Silvia Manzo University of La Plata, Argentina Enrico Pasini University of Turin, Italy Cesare Pastorino TU Berlin, Germany Lucian Petrescu Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium Justin E. H. Smith University de Paris Diderot, France Marius Stan Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA Koen Vermeir CNRS-SPHERE + Université de Paris, France Kirsten Walsh University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Leibniz’s Metaphysics and Adoption of Substantial Forms

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Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 9401799563
Total Pages : 185 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (17 download)

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Book Synopsis Leibniz’s Metaphysics and Adoption of Substantial Forms by : Adrian Nita

Download or read book Leibniz’s Metaphysics and Adoption of Substantial Forms written by Adrian Nita and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-07-01 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This anthology is about the signal change in Leibniz’s metaphysics with his explicit adoption of substantial forms in 1678-79. This change can either be seen as a moment of discontinuity with his metaphysics of maturity or as a moment of continuity, such as a passage to the metaphysics from his last years. Between the end of his sejour at Paris (November 1676) and the first part of the Hanover period, Leibniz reformed his dynamics and began to use the theory of corporeal substance. This book explores a very important part of the philosophical work of the young Leibniz. Expertise from around the globe is collated here, including Daniel Garber’s work based on the recent publication of Leibniz's correspondence from the late 1690s, examining how the theory of monads developed during these crucial years. Richard Arthur argues that the introduction of substantial forms, reinterpreted as enduring primitive forces of action in each corporeal substance, allows Leibniz to found the reality of the phenomena of motion in force and thus avoid reducing motion to a mere appearance. Amongst other themes covered in this book, Pauline Phemister’s paper investigates Leibniz’s views on animals and plants, highlighting changes, modifications and elaborations over time of Leibniz’s views and supporting arguments and paying particular attention to his claim that the future is already contained in the seeds of living things. The editor, Adrian Nita, contributes a paper on the continuity or discontinuity of Leibniz’s work on the question of the unity and identity of substance from the perspective of the relation with soul (anima) and mind (mens).

Leibniz's Naturalized Philosophy of Mind

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0191023973
Total Pages : 344 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Leibniz's Naturalized Philosophy of Mind by : Larry M. Jorgensen

Download or read book Leibniz's Naturalized Philosophy of Mind written by Larry M. Jorgensen and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-21 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Larry M. Jorgensen provides a systematic reappraisal of Leibniz's philosophy of mind, revealing the full metaphysical background that allowed Leibniz to see farther than most of his contemporaries. In recent philosophy much effort has been put into discovering a naturalized theory of mind. Leibniz's efforts to reach a similar goal three hundred years earlier offer a critical stance from which we can assess our own theories. But while the goals might be similar, the content of Leibniz's theory significantly diverges from that of today's thought. Perhaps surprisingly, Leibniz's theological commitments yielded a thoroughgoing naturalizing methodology: the properties of an object are explicable in terms of the object's nature. Larry M. Jorgensen shows how this methodology led Leibniz to a fully natural theory of mind.

The Nature of Reality and the Reality of Nature

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Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1443818372
Total Pages : 293 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (438 download)

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Book Synopsis The Nature of Reality and the Reality of Nature by : Jürgen Lawrenz

Download or read book The Nature of Reality and the Reality of Nature written by Jürgen Lawrenz and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2009-12-14 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new, comprehensive study of Leibniz’s system of thought reveals a philosopher equally intrigued by the complexity of physical reality and the fascinations of his metaphysical laboratory. Many of his most important, but never previously published papers are evaluated in this book. Too often put down as an arch-metaphysician, Leibniz is seen in these pages as a venturer of breathtaking boldness, his ambition being nothing less than to actually solve the enigma of existence. Accordingly his system embraced science equally with metaphysics; they complement and pollinate each other. The outcome is a view of his system as a double ontology. Reality is the domain of the actual; metaphysics the laboratory of the possible. Metaphysics springs to life with his scintillating detective work on force, motion, time, space, limits, infinity, folds, fractals and many other issues that are ‘hot’ again today; while in all these a direct line is kept open to their impact on physical existents and our understanding of reality. This book is equally suited to expert Leibnizians as to students of Early Modern philosophy; and it may be read with profit by anyone interested in this thinker, whom Bertrand Russell called “one of the supreme intellects of all time”.

Leibniz and the Environment

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 131740811X
Total Pages : 209 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (174 download)

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Book Synopsis Leibniz and the Environment by : Pauline Phemister

Download or read book Leibniz and the Environment written by Pauline Phemister and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-31 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The work of seventeenth-century polymath Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz has proved inspirational to philosophers and scientists alike. In this thought-provoking book, Pauline Phemister explores the ecological potential of Leibniz’s dynamic, pluralist, panpsychist, metaphysical system. She argues that Leibniz’s philosophy has a renewed relevance in the twenty-first century, particularly in relation to the environmental change and crises that threaten human and non-human life on earth. Drawing on Leibniz’s theory of soul-like, interconnected metaphysical entities he termed 'monads', Phemister explains how an individual’s true good is inextricably linked to the good of all. Phemister also finds in Leibniz’s works the rudiments of a theory of empathy and strategies for strengthening human feelings of compassion towards all living things. Leibniz and the Environment is essential reading for historians of philosophy and environmental philosophers, and will also be of interest to anyone seeking a metaphysical perspective from which to pursue environmental action and policy.

A Geometry of Sufficient Reason

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Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1040097022
Total Pages : 247 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (4 download)

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Book Synopsis A Geometry of Sufficient Reason by : Florian Vermeiren

Download or read book A Geometry of Sufficient Reason written by Florian Vermeiren and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-08-08 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores and compares the reflections on space and quantity found in the works of five philosophers: Spinoza, Leibniz, Bergson, Whitehead, and Deleuze. What unites these philosophers is a series of metaphysical concerns rooted in 17th-century rationalism and embraced in 20th-century philosophies of process and difference. At the heart of these concerns is the need for a comprehensive metaphysical account of the diversity and individuality of things. This demand leads to a shared critique of Cartesian and Newtonian conceptions of space. The most problematic aspect of those notions of space is homogeneity. In essence, uniform space fails to explain the differences between locations, thus violating the Principle of Sufficient Reason. Cartesian and Newtonian theories of space thereby fail to meet the metaphysical requirement for explaining diversity and individuality. The traditional concept of quantity faces similar issues. Motivated by these problems, these five philosophers developed an alternative conception of space and quantity. By examining these theories, the book sheds new light on an unexplored relation between rationalism and 20th-century Continental philosophy. A Geometry of Sufficient Reason will appeal to scholars and graduate students working in Continental philosophy, history of philosophy, metaphysics, and the history and philosophy of science.

Leibniz: What Kind of Rationalist?

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Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1402086687
Total Pages : 528 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis Leibniz: What Kind of Rationalist? by : Marcelo Dascal

Download or read book Leibniz: What Kind of Rationalist? written by Marcelo Dascal and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-08-09 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was an outstanding contributor to many fields of human knowledge. The historiography of philosophy has tagged him as a “rationalist”. But what does this exactly mean? Is he a “rationalist” in the same sense in Mathematics and Politics, in Physics and Jurisprudence, in Metaphysics and Theology, in Logic and Linguistics, in Technology and Medicine, in Epistemology and Ethics? What are the most significant features of his “rationalism”, whatever it is? For the first time an outstanding group of Leibniz researchers, some acknowledged as leading scholars, others in the beginning of a promising career, who specialize in the most significant areas of Leibniz’s contributions to human thought and action, were requested to spell out the nature of his rationalism in each of these areas, with a view to provide a comprehensive picture of what it amounts to, both in its general drive and in its specific features and eventual inner tensions. The chapters of the book are the result of intense discussion in the course of an international conference focused on the title question of this book, and were selected in view of their contribution to this topic. They are clustered in thematically organized parts. No effort has been made to hide the controversies underlying the different interpretations of Leibniz’s “rationalism” – in each particular domain and as a whole. On the contrary, the editor firmly believes that only through a variety of conflicting interpretive perspectives can the multi-faceted nature of an oeuvre of such a magnitude and variety as Leibniz’s be brought to light and understood as it deserves.