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The Monadology and Other Philosophical Writings
The Monadology and Other Philosophical Writings Author:Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: PART. III. DETAILED STATEMENT OF THE PHILOSOPHY OP LEIBNIZ. Passing from the general consideration of the doctrines it' Leibni/, we now come to their more... more » specific development. Wo shall, in the first place, examine the relation between his philosophical principles and the ruling conceptions of his Mathematics, and we shall afterwards endeavour to trace the principles of the Monadology in the various departments of knowledge which are concerned with Matter, with Orgrfnism, and with Self- consciousness. This review of human knowledge, proceeding from the most abstract or simple to the most concrete or complex of the sciences', will reveal to us the interpretation which Leibniz's conception of Substance requires us to give to the judgments of common consciousness. From another point of view, we may consider ourselves as inquiring :—' What are the answers which Leibniz would make to objections against his system, based upon facts, hypotheses, or common beliefs in mathematical and physical, biological and mental science ?' A. Leibniz's Mathematics Ik Kelation To His Philosophy. Jt was partly through Mathematics that Leibniz arrived at the notion of Substance which is the core of his philosophy. Dissatisfaction with the Mathematics (it Descartes and with its consequences in Physics led him to reject the Cartesian theory of matter and motion ' The consideration of Leibniz's Theology or Philosophy of Religion is beyoml the scope of the present volume. and to substitute for it a more adequate theory of Force and a higher Mathematics. Both the Mathematics and the Physics of the time appeared to Leibniz to be too abstract, and the great object of his speculations was to bring them more into touch with concrete reality. The Transition from Syntitetic to Analytic Geome...« less