Substance and Individuation in Leibniz

by J. A. Cover , John O'Leary-Hawthorne

• ISBN13: 9780521593946
• ISBN10: 0521593948
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-09-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book offers a sustained re-evaluation of the most central and perplexing themes of Leibniz's metaphysics. In contrast to traditional assessments that view the metaphysics in terms of its place among post-Cartesian theories of the world, Jan Cover and John O'Leary-Hawthorne examine the question of how the scholastic themes which were Leibniz's inheritance figure - and are refigured - in his mature account of substance and individuation. From this emerges a sometimes surprising assessment of Leibniz's views on modality, the Identity of Indiscernibles, form as an internal law, and the complete-concept doctrine. As a rigorous philosophical treatment of a still-influential mediary between scholastic and modern metaphysics, this study will be of interest to historians of philosophy and contemporary metaphysicians alike.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	1	(9)
Leibniz and the problem of individuation: the historical and philosophical context	10	(48)
Relations	58	(29)
Essentialism	87	(56)
Haecceitism and anti-haecceitism	143	(41)
Sufficient Reason and the Identity of Indiscernibles	184	(30)
Law-of-the-series, identity and change	214	(39)
The threat of one substance	253	(38)
Bibliography	291	(8)
Index	299