Leibniz: An Introduction

by C. D Broad

• ISBN13: 9780521099257
• ISBN10: 0521099250
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1975-06-27
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book, first published in 1975, provides critical and comprehensive introduction to the philosophy of Leibniz. C.D. Broad was Knightsbridge Professor of Moral Philosophy at Cambridge from 1933 to 1953 and this book is based on his undergraduate lectures on Leibniz. Broad died in 1971 and Dr Lewy has since edited the book for publication. Leibniz is, of course, recognized as a major figure in all courses in the history of philosophy, but he has perhaps been less well served by textbook writers than most other philosophers. Broad has provided here a characteristically shrewd and sympathetic survey which further confirms his known virtues as an historian and expositor. It is a very clear, detailed and orderly guide to what is notoriously a most difficult (and sometimes disorderly) philosophical system; it provides a masterful introduction to the subject.

Table of Contents

Editor's preface

Abbreviations;

Life and Works;

General Principles Used by Leibniz

Predicate-in-Notion Principle

Principle of sufficient reason

Is the Predicate-in-Notion Principle compatible with contingency?

Comments on the Predicate-in-Notion Principle

Principle of Sufficient Reason, contingency, and infinite complexity

Denial of relations

Identity of Indiscernibles

The Principle of continuity

Denial of transeunt causation;

Leibniz's Theory of Corporeal Substances

Background of Leibniz's theories

Extension and motion

Relativity of space, time and motion

Dynamical properties of bodies

Endless divisibility

Argument for substantial forms for the Predicate-in-Notion Principle

Substantial forms and organic bodies are ingenerable and incorruptible;

Theory of Monads

Monads and entelechies

Corporeal substance is a phenomenon bene fundatum

Plurality of substances

Characteristics of monads

Pre-established harmony

The three kinds of monad

The real foundation of the various bodily phenomena

Theory of organisms

Apparent interaction of body and mind

The Viniculum Substantiale;

Psychology and the Theory of Knowledge

Conscious and unconscious experiences

The innate and the a priori

Sensation and sense-perception

Conative and affective experiences;

Ethics;

Theology

God's nature and relations to the world

Existence of God

Defence of God's character

The Kingdom of Ends

Bibliographical note

Index

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