Jon Parkin and Timothy Stanton (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265406
- eISBN:
- 9780191760457
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265406.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This book examines the relationship between natural law and toleration during the Early Enlightenment. Modern discussion of tolerationist theories during this period can suggest that such ideas were ...
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This book examines the relationship between natural law and toleration during the Early Enlightenment. Modern discussion of tolerationist theories during this period can suggest that such ideas were articulated in an essentially secular and individualist mode. In fact some of the most important discussions of toleration at this time emerged from writers who were committed to a more complex structure of assumption and belief in which natural law ideas were foundational. The consequences of this fact for theories of toleration have not (until now) been systematically investigated. This book provides new insights into the relationship between natural law and toleration in the work of Samuel Pufendorf, John Locke, Christian Thomasius, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Jean Barbeyrac, and Francis Hutcheson. Taken together the chapters uncover the diverse ways in which the distinctive natural law arguments helped to structure accounts of toleration that remain important for us today.Less
This book examines the relationship between natural law and toleration during the Early Enlightenment. Modern discussion of tolerationist theories during this period can suggest that such ideas were articulated in an essentially secular and individualist mode. In fact some of the most important discussions of toleration at this time emerged from writers who were committed to a more complex structure of assumption and belief in which natural law ideas were foundational. The consequences of this fact for theories of toleration have not (until now) been systematically investigated. This book provides new insights into the relationship between natural law and toleration in the work of Samuel Pufendorf, John Locke, Christian Thomasius, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Jean Barbeyrac, and Francis Hutcheson. Taken together the chapters uncover the diverse ways in which the distinctive natural law arguments helped to structure accounts of toleration that remain important for us today.
Justin E. H. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691153643
- eISBN:
- 9781400866311
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691153643.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter undertakes an extensive treatment of the place of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in the history of the concept of race. In particular, the chapter draws out the significant points of ...
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This chapter undertakes an extensive treatment of the place of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in the history of the concept of race. In particular, the chapter draws out the significant points of difference between Leibniz's view, on the one hand, and Bernier's biogeographical view, on the other. It shows, in fact, that Leibniz remains thoroughly committed to a conception of race that is rooted in earlier ideas about the temporal succession of members of a family or lineage. Moreover, the chapter reveals in what way his analysis of race may be seen as a concrete application of his very deepest philosophical commitment, according to which the order of the world amounts to a multiplicity that is underlain by unity.Less
This chapter undertakes an extensive treatment of the place of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in the history of the concept of race. In particular, the chapter draws out the significant points of difference between Leibniz's view, on the one hand, and Bernier's biogeographical view, on the other. It shows, in fact, that Leibniz remains thoroughly committed to a conception of race that is rooted in earlier ideas about the temporal succession of members of a family or lineage. Moreover, the chapter reveals in what way his analysis of race may be seen as a concrete application of his very deepest philosophical commitment, according to which the order of the world amounts to a multiplicity that is underlain by unity.
Avi Lifschitz
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199661664
- eISBN:
- 9780191751653
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199661664.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, History of Ideas
This chapter explores a synchronic approach to the interrelations between language and mind, as expressed mainly by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Christian Wolff. Leibniz's attempt to rehabilitate ...
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This chapter explores a synchronic approach to the interrelations between language and mind, as expressed mainly by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Christian Wolff. Leibniz's attempt to rehabilitate the Christian mysteries incorporated an influential distinction: clear and distinct ideas corresponded to intuitive perception, whereas most of the ideas accessible to the human mind were clear but indistinct (or confused). Such ideas could be processed only by means of signs, resulting in symbolic knowledge. From the 1730s to the 1750s, prompted by fears of radical rationalism, Pietists and orthodox authors adopted this rehabilitation of symbolic thinking by means of clear but indistinct ideas. This synthesis was elaborated in contemporary aesthetics, historical studies, and biblical criticism, particularly in Halle and Göttingen.Less
This chapter explores a synchronic approach to the interrelations between language and mind, as expressed mainly by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Christian Wolff. Leibniz's attempt to rehabilitate the Christian mysteries incorporated an influential distinction: clear and distinct ideas corresponded to intuitive perception, whereas most of the ideas accessible to the human mind were clear but indistinct (or confused). Such ideas could be processed only by means of signs, resulting in symbolic knowledge. From the 1730s to the 1750s, prompted by fears of radical rationalism, Pietists and orthodox authors adopted this rehabilitation of symbolic thinking by means of clear but indistinct ideas. This synthesis was elaborated in contemporary aesthetics, historical studies, and biblical criticism, particularly in Halle and Göttingen.
Stephen Gaukroger
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199594931
- eISBN:
- 9780191595745
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199594931.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science, General
The chapter explores the collapse of mechanism and the competition between Newton's and Leibniz's non‐mechanistic models of physical explanation; the relation between Leibniz's metaphysics and his ...
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The chapter explores the collapse of mechanism and the competition between Newton's and Leibniz's non‐mechanistic models of physical explanation; the relation between Leibniz's metaphysics and his dynamics; and the different interpretations that Newton and Leibniz placed on calculus. Among the issues in the philosophy of mathematics raised is Leibniz's ‘black‐box’ interpretation of calculus.Less
The chapter explores the collapse of mechanism and the competition between Newton's and Leibniz's non‐mechanistic models of physical explanation; the relation between Leibniz's metaphysics and his dynamics; and the different interpretations that Newton and Leibniz placed on calculus. Among the issues in the philosophy of mathematics raised is Leibniz's ‘black‐box’ interpretation of calculus.
Michah Gottlieb
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195398946
- eISBN:
- 9780199894499
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195398946.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter explores Mendelssohn's early thought. While Frederick the Great's enlightened absolutism should have presented Jews with greater opportunities for social advancement and equal rights, ...
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This chapter explores Mendelssohn's early thought. While Frederick the Great's enlightened absolutism should have presented Jews with greater opportunities for social advancement and equal rights, this was stymied by Frederick's adherence to medieval stereotypes of Jews as superstitious and unethical. Addressing Jewish contemporaries, Mendelssohn uses Maimonides' authority to legitimate cultural pursuits outside of Judaism. But Mendelssohn is disturbed by Maimonides' ambivalent attitude towards central theistic concepts such as divine providence and the immortality of the soul. While Maimonides is the greatest medieval Jewish philosopher, Spinoza is the greatest modern Jewish philosopher. Addressing his Christian contemporaries, Mendelssohn defends Spinoza as a model of Jewish cultural attainment. While Mendelssohn rejects Spinoza's atheism, he claims that Spinoza made crucial contributions to the enlightened theism of the German philosophers Leibniz and Wolff who advanced religious philosophy beyond its medieval forms by philosophically grounding Judaism's fundamental insight into God's providential goodness.Less
This chapter explores Mendelssohn's early thought. While Frederick the Great's enlightened absolutism should have presented Jews with greater opportunities for social advancement and equal rights, this was stymied by Frederick's adherence to medieval stereotypes of Jews as superstitious and unethical. Addressing Jewish contemporaries, Mendelssohn uses Maimonides' authority to legitimate cultural pursuits outside of Judaism. But Mendelssohn is disturbed by Maimonides' ambivalent attitude towards central theistic concepts such as divine providence and the immortality of the soul. While Maimonides is the greatest medieval Jewish philosopher, Spinoza is the greatest modern Jewish philosopher. Addressing his Christian contemporaries, Mendelssohn defends Spinoza as a model of Jewish cultural attainment. While Mendelssohn rejects Spinoza's atheism, he claims that Spinoza made crucial contributions to the enlightened theism of the German philosophers Leibniz and Wolff who advanced religious philosophy beyond its medieval forms by philosophically grounding Judaism's fundamental insight into God's providential goodness.
John T. Hamilton
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691157528
- eISBN:
- 9781400846474
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691157528.003.0011
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter considers Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz who devoted his philosophic and scientific career to harmonizing discordances and unifying disparities, calculating the otherwise incalculable and ...
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This chapter considers Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz who devoted his philosophic and scientific career to harmonizing discordances and unifying disparities, calculating the otherwise incalculable and reconciling the seemingly unreconciliable. The universalizing thrust of Leibniz's thinking is of a piece both with his ecumenism and with his moral and political views. The Cartesian who rejects phenomena as false simply because they can be doubted lacks the courage to face conflicts that may arise within any aspect of human experience. Instead, Leibniz refused to be daunted by uncertainty. In this regard, he should be numbered among those seventeenth-century theoreticians of probability like Pierre de Fermat, Blaise Pascal, and Jakob Bernoulli, who strove to develop models of rational judgment and action in the face of grave uncertainty.Less
This chapter considers Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz who devoted his philosophic and scientific career to harmonizing discordances and unifying disparities, calculating the otherwise incalculable and reconciling the seemingly unreconciliable. The universalizing thrust of Leibniz's thinking is of a piece both with his ecumenism and with his moral and political views. The Cartesian who rejects phenomena as false simply because they can be doubted lacks the courage to face conflicts that may arise within any aspect of human experience. Instead, Leibniz refused to be daunted by uncertainty. In this regard, he should be numbered among those seventeenth-century theoreticians of probability like Pierre de Fermat, Blaise Pascal, and Jakob Bernoulli, who strove to develop models of rational judgment and action in the face of grave uncertainty.
Christian Kerslake
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748635900
- eISBN:
- 9780748671823
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748635900.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter reviews the origins of Immanuel Kant's ontology in rationalism. Gilles Deleuze's own synthesis of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Kant revolves around the redevelopment of the suppressed ...
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This chapter reviews the origins of Immanuel Kant's ontology in rationalism. Gilles Deleuze's own synthesis of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Kant revolves around the redevelopment of the suppressed ontotheological dimension in Kant. Leibniz proposed the notion of pre-established harmony by a cluster of motives. The distinction between logic and reality collapses as reality follows with complete internal necessity from the very thought of God. Kant wants God to serve as a ground for ‘reality’, but at the same time wants to limit God's power in reality. It then evaluates how the space may be thought in itself according to the notion of repetition. A brief account of Solomon Maïmon's theory can help in the understanding of Deleuze's account of the nature and relation of Ideas and intensities. It was shown that vectorial relations were intensive incarnations of ‘Ideas’.Less
This chapter reviews the origins of Immanuel Kant's ontology in rationalism. Gilles Deleuze's own synthesis of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Kant revolves around the redevelopment of the suppressed ontotheological dimension in Kant. Leibniz proposed the notion of pre-established harmony by a cluster of motives. The distinction between logic and reality collapses as reality follows with complete internal necessity from the very thought of God. Kant wants God to serve as a ground for ‘reality’, but at the same time wants to limit God's power in reality. It then evaluates how the space may be thought in itself according to the notion of repetition. A brief account of Solomon Maïmon's theory can help in the understanding of Deleuze's account of the nature and relation of Ideas and intensities. It was shown that vectorial relations were intensive incarnations of ‘Ideas’.
Stephen Gaukroger
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199594931
- eISBN:
- 9780191595745
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199594931.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science, General
In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries there was a concern to reconcile Christianity, the traditional humanistic disciplines, and natural philosophy. There are two principal ways in ...
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In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries there was a concern to reconcile Christianity, the traditional humanistic disciplines, and natural philosophy. There are two principal ways in which the reconciliation between religion and natural philosophy was attempted: metaphysics and physico‐theology. The Leibniz/Clarke correspondence encapsulates many of the questions at issue.Less
In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries there was a concern to reconcile Christianity, the traditional humanistic disciplines, and natural philosophy. There are two principal ways in which the reconciliation between religion and natural philosophy was attempted: metaphysics and physico‐theology. The Leibniz/Clarke correspondence encapsulates many of the questions at issue.
Sean Bowden
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748643592
- eISBN:
- 9780748652624
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748643592.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This chapter examines the influence of Gottfried Leibniz on Gilles Deleuze's philosophy of event. It analyses how Deleuze took up Leibniz's philosophy and evaluates the role of compossibility and ...
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This chapter examines the influence of Gottfried Leibniz on Gilles Deleuze's philosophy of event. It analyses how Deleuze took up Leibniz's philosophy and evaluates the role of compossibility and incompossibility in the latter's philosophical system. It explains that Deleuze turned to Leibniz in order to argue, from the perspective of a different system of philosophical concepts, that two types of relation between events govern their ideal play and underlie the determination and relation of denoted things, manifested persons, and general concepts.Less
This chapter examines the influence of Gottfried Leibniz on Gilles Deleuze's philosophy of event. It analyses how Deleuze took up Leibniz's philosophy and evaluates the role of compossibility and incompossibility in the latter's philosophical system. It explains that Deleuze turned to Leibniz in order to argue, from the perspective of a different system of philosophical concepts, that two types of relation between events govern their ideal play and underlie the determination and relation of denoted things, manifested persons, and general concepts.
Maria Rosa Antognazza
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300100747
- eISBN:
- 9780300144987
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300100747.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
Throughout his long intellectual life, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz penned his reflections on Christian theology, yet this wealth of material has never been systematically gathered or studied. This book ...
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Throughout his long intellectual life, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz penned his reflections on Christian theology, yet this wealth of material has never been systematically gathered or studied. This book addresses an important and central aspect of these neglected materials—Leibniz's writings on two mysteries central to Christian thought, the Trinity and the Incarnation. From this study emerges a portrait of a thinker surprisingly receptive to traditional Christian theology and profoundly committed to defending the legitimacy of truths beyond the full grasp of human reason. This view of Leibniz differs strikingly from traditional perceptions of the philosopher as a “hard” rationalist and quasi-deist. It also sets Leibniz's writings in the context of the important theological controversies of his day.Less
Throughout his long intellectual life, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz penned his reflections on Christian theology, yet this wealth of material has never been systematically gathered or studied. This book addresses an important and central aspect of these neglected materials—Leibniz's writings on two mysteries central to Christian thought, the Trinity and the Incarnation. From this study emerges a portrait of a thinker surprisingly receptive to traditional Christian theology and profoundly committed to defending the legitimacy of truths beyond the full grasp of human reason. This view of Leibniz differs strikingly from traditional perceptions of the philosopher as a “hard” rationalist and quasi-deist. It also sets Leibniz's writings in the context of the important theological controversies of his day.
Roger Ariew
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199583645
- eISBN:
- 9780191738456
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199583645.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
This essay explores the reception and used of Suárez’s philosophy by two canonical early modern philosophers, René Descartes and Gottfried Leibniz. It is argued that Descartes’ theory of distinctions ...
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This essay explores the reception and used of Suárez’s philosophy by two canonical early modern philosophers, René Descartes and Gottfried Leibniz. It is argued that Descartes’ theory of distinctions does not betray any indications of being Suárezian, despite many claims to the contrary. Leibniz, however, was a very different reader of Suárez’s works, it is argued, and his thinking about individuation was clearly influenced by Suárez even if he did not adopt the Suárezian position in the endLess
This essay explores the reception and used of Suárez’s philosophy by two canonical early modern philosophers, René Descartes and Gottfried Leibniz. It is argued that Descartes’ theory of distinctions does not betray any indications of being Suárezian, despite many claims to the contrary. Leibniz, however, was a very different reader of Suárez’s works, it is argued, and his thinking about individuation was clearly influenced by Suárez even if he did not adopt the Suárezian position in the end
Stuart Elden
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226202563
- eISBN:
- 9780226041285
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226041285.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas
This chapter begins with a detailed discussion of some unjustly neglected thinkers of the early seventeenth century whose work was integral to thinking through the political and geographical legacy ...
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This chapter begins with a detailed discussion of some unjustly neglected thinkers of the early seventeenth century whose work was integral to thinking through the political and geographical legacy of the Reformation. These include Richard Hooker, Andreas Knichen, and Johannes Althusius. The next part of the chapter offers a reading of the political and geographical implications of the scientific revolution, with special focus on Descartes, Spinoza and the Newton/Leibniz dispute. Hobbes, Filmer and Locke are then discussed in terms of the relation between politics and land (or at times territory) in their work. The colonial context is particularly crucial to understanding Locke. It suggests that Gottfried Leibniz is the most important political thinker of territory of this period. Leibniz, like Theodor Reinking, Bogislaw Philipp von Chemnitz, and Samuel Pufendorf, is trying to make sense of the fractured political geographies of the Holy Roman Empire, especially in the wake of the Peace of Westphalia. In distinguishing between the majesty of the Emperor and the territorial supremacy of the princes, Leibniz provides a strikingly modern definition.Less
This chapter begins with a detailed discussion of some unjustly neglected thinkers of the early seventeenth century whose work was integral to thinking through the political and geographical legacy of the Reformation. These include Richard Hooker, Andreas Knichen, and Johannes Althusius. The next part of the chapter offers a reading of the political and geographical implications of the scientific revolution, with special focus on Descartes, Spinoza and the Newton/Leibniz dispute. Hobbes, Filmer and Locke are then discussed in terms of the relation between politics and land (or at times territory) in their work. The colonial context is particularly crucial to understanding Locke. It suggests that Gottfried Leibniz is the most important political thinker of territory of this period. Leibniz, like Theodor Reinking, Bogislaw Philipp von Chemnitz, and Samuel Pufendorf, is trying to make sense of the fractured political geographies of the Holy Roman Empire, especially in the wake of the Peace of Westphalia. In distinguishing between the majesty of the Emperor and the territorial supremacy of the princes, Leibniz provides a strikingly modern definition.
Maurice A. Finocchiaro
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520242616
- eISBN:
- 9780520941373
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520242616.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter investigates what might be called a third wave of reactions to Galileo's trial, covering the period between 1654 and 1704 and most significantly represented by the figures of Vincenzio ...
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This chapter investigates what might be called a third wave of reactions to Galileo's trial, covering the period between 1654 and 1704 and most significantly represented by the figures of Vincenzio Viviani, Adrien Auzout, and Gottfried W. Leibniz. Viviani account focused on Galileo's work in astronomy and physics and on his personality. Auzout suggested that while he might be willing to accept the prohibition on public support, he did not think there was anything wrong with the private pursuit of Copernicanism. Leibniz's 1689 argument was an attempt to make both sides happy; and he thought he could accomplish this by means of a reinterpretation of the situation. In Leibniz, someone who was temperamentally and methodologically moderate, bipartisan, diplomatic, and ecumenically minded was found; he attempted several such moves, and it may have been their failure that led him to a relatively pro-Galilean position in his most mature and public pronouncement.Less
This chapter investigates what might be called a third wave of reactions to Galileo's trial, covering the period between 1654 and 1704 and most significantly represented by the figures of Vincenzio Viviani, Adrien Auzout, and Gottfried W. Leibniz. Viviani account focused on Galileo's work in astronomy and physics and on his personality. Auzout suggested that while he might be willing to accept the prohibition on public support, he did not think there was anything wrong with the private pursuit of Copernicanism. Leibniz's 1689 argument was an attempt to make both sides happy; and he thought he could accomplish this by means of a reinterpretation of the situation. In Leibniz, someone who was temperamentally and methodologically moderate, bipartisan, diplomatic, and ecumenically minded was found; he attempted several such moves, and it may have been their failure that led him to a relatively pro-Galilean position in his most mature and public pronouncement.
Daniel W. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748632992
- eISBN:
- 9780748652570
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748632992.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This chapter analyses Gilles Deleuze's engagement with the philosophical thoughts of Gottfried Leibniz. It suggests that though having published a book-length study of Leibniz entitled The Fold: ...
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This chapter analyses Gilles Deleuze's engagement with the philosophical thoughts of Gottfried Leibniz. It suggests that though having published a book-length study of Leibniz entitled The Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque in 1988, Deleuze's important engagement with Leibniz had already occurred in Difference and Repetition in 1968 and in Logic of Sense in 1969. The chapter shows how Deleuze used Leibniz to deduce the necessity of a principle of difference by making his way through the four fundamental principles of Leibniz's philosophy: identity, sufficient reason, indiscernibility, and the law of continuity.Less
This chapter analyses Gilles Deleuze's engagement with the philosophical thoughts of Gottfried Leibniz. It suggests that though having published a book-length study of Leibniz entitled The Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque in 1988, Deleuze's important engagement with Leibniz had already occurred in Difference and Repetition in 1968 and in Logic of Sense in 1969. The chapter shows how Deleuze used Leibniz to deduce the necessity of a principle of difference by making his way through the four fundamental principles of Leibniz's philosophy: identity, sufficient reason, indiscernibility, and the law of continuity.
John Marenbon
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691142555
- eISBN:
- 9781400866359
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691142555.003.0016
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This epilogue discusses Leibniz's particular interest in China. Like his predecessors, Leibniz's preferred virtuous pagans were also ancient philosophers, but he was partial to those of China. ...
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This epilogue discusses Leibniz's particular interest in China. Like his predecessors, Leibniz's preferred virtuous pagans were also ancient philosophers, but he was partial to those of China. Leibniz had showed an interest in China from the mid-1670s and, from 1689, roughly in the middle of his career, he began to conduct a correspondence with a number of the Jesuit missionaries to China, seeking information about Chinese writings, thought and language, as well as current news about political and religious developments. His intense interest in China and his voracious reading of all he could find out about it grew from these correspondences, and his fullest thoughts about Chinese religion are expressed in one of his last works, a letter On the Natural Theology of the Chinese, written in 1716 — the year of his death.Less
This epilogue discusses Leibniz's particular interest in China. Like his predecessors, Leibniz's preferred virtuous pagans were also ancient philosophers, but he was partial to those of China. Leibniz had showed an interest in China from the mid-1670s and, from 1689, roughly in the middle of his career, he began to conduct a correspondence with a number of the Jesuit missionaries to China, seeking information about Chinese writings, thought and language, as well as current news about political and religious developments. His intense interest in China and his voracious reading of all he could find out about it grew from these correspondences, and his fullest thoughts about Chinese religion are expressed in one of his last works, a letter On the Natural Theology of the Chinese, written in 1716 — the year of his death.
Matthew L. Jones
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226411460
- eISBN:
- 9780226411637
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226411637.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter investigates Leibniz’s relationship to skilled labor in the conception and creation of his calculating machines. It shows Robert Hooke and Leibniz working to organize and coordinate the ...
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This chapter investigates Leibniz’s relationship to skilled labor in the conception and creation of his calculating machines. It shows Robert Hooke and Leibniz working to organize and coordinate the skills and knowledge of others. These cases reveal no stable, strict hierarchy between inventor and artisan, creator and implementer, between intellectual and manual labor. Despite a lifetime of effort and a small fortune, Leibniz never produced a machine deemed functional; the challenge of making machine inflected his philosophical reflections on the value of practical knowledge.Less
This chapter investigates Leibniz’s relationship to skilled labor in the conception and creation of his calculating machines. It shows Robert Hooke and Leibniz working to organize and coordinate the skills and knowledge of others. These cases reveal no stable, strict hierarchy between inventor and artisan, creator and implementer, between intellectual and manual labor. Despite a lifetime of effort and a small fortune, Leibniz never produced a machine deemed functional; the challenge of making machine inflected his philosophical reflections on the value of practical knowledge.
Jacqueline Broad (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190673321
- eISBN:
- 9780190673369
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190673321.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter contains selected letters from the private correspondence of the moral philosopher Damaris Cudworth Masham. It includes some of Masham’s letters to and from her close friend John Locke, ...
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This chapter contains selected letters from the private correspondence of the moral philosopher Damaris Cudworth Masham. It includes some of Masham’s letters to and from her close friend John Locke, the well-known English empiricist and political thinker, as well as her correspondence with the Genevan philosopher-theologian Jean Le Clerc and the German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, spanning the period from 1682 to 1705. The topics of the letters range from issues to do with enthusiasm, faith, and knowledge to friendship, Stoicism, Locke’s idea of thinking matter, and Ralph Cudworth’s doctrine of plastic nature. The chapter begins with an introductory essay by the editor, situating Masham’s letters in relation to the development of her own independent moral and epistemological views in her published works. The text includes a number of editorial annotations, to assist the reader’s understanding of early modern words and ideas.Less
This chapter contains selected letters from the private correspondence of the moral philosopher Damaris Cudworth Masham. It includes some of Masham’s letters to and from her close friend John Locke, the well-known English empiricist and political thinker, as well as her correspondence with the Genevan philosopher-theologian Jean Le Clerc and the German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, spanning the period from 1682 to 1705. The topics of the letters range from issues to do with enthusiasm, faith, and knowledge to friendship, Stoicism, Locke’s idea of thinking matter, and Ralph Cudworth’s doctrine of plastic nature. The chapter begins with an introductory essay by the editor, situating Masham’s letters in relation to the development of her own independent moral and epistemological views in her published works. The text includes a number of editorial annotations, to assist the reader’s understanding of early modern words and ideas.
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226749457
- eISBN:
- 9780226749471
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226749471.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
In 1727, Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle celebrated his appointment at forty years of age as the first-ever perpetual secretary of the Royal Academy of Sciences. During his first three decades as ...
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In 1727, Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle celebrated his appointment at forty years of age as the first-ever perpetual secretary of the Royal Academy of Sciences. During his first three decades as academy secretary, Fontenelle had defined himself and his new office by working vigorously to defend an image of honnête public science that came to define official French science as a whole. This chapter looks at the priority dispute that pitted defenders of Isaac Newton's independently invented calculus against Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's claim to have been the first to invent this new mathematics. The new critical climate, the new discourses of Newtonianism, the new eighteenth-century mediascape, and the new battlefield focused on Newton—made possible Voltaire's innovations in 1734. This chapter also focuses on Father Louis Bertrand Castel and critical mathematical discourse in France before concluding by discussing the correspondence between Leibniz and Samuel Clarke.Less
In 1727, Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle celebrated his appointment at forty years of age as the first-ever perpetual secretary of the Royal Academy of Sciences. During his first three decades as academy secretary, Fontenelle had defined himself and his new office by working vigorously to defend an image of honnête public science that came to define official French science as a whole. This chapter looks at the priority dispute that pitted defenders of Isaac Newton's independently invented calculus against Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's claim to have been the first to invent this new mathematics. The new critical climate, the new discourses of Newtonianism, the new eighteenth-century mediascape, and the new battlefield focused on Newton—made possible Voltaire's innovations in 1734. This chapter also focuses on Father Louis Bertrand Castel and critical mathematical discourse in France before concluding by discussing the correspondence between Leibniz and Samuel Clarke.
Eliyahu Stern
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300179309
- eISBN:
- 9780300183221
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300179309.003.0003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Jewish Studies
This chapter explains that Elijah ben Solomon's worldview bears both Jewish and Greek philosophical sources. It argues that his ideas took form in an era typified by an attempt by Gottfried Wilhelm ...
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This chapter explains that Elijah ben Solomon's worldview bears both Jewish and Greek philosophical sources. It argues that his ideas took form in an era typified by an attempt by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz to pinpoint a universally valid coherent system that could be justified by and contained within a first and Absolute Idea. Like Leibniz, Elijah believed that all components of experience emerge from, and can be understood by, human minds.Less
This chapter explains that Elijah ben Solomon's worldview bears both Jewish and Greek philosophical sources. It argues that his ideas took form in an era typified by an attempt by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz to pinpoint a universally valid coherent system that could be justified by and contained within a first and Absolute Idea. Like Leibniz, Elijah believed that all components of experience emerge from, and can be understood by, human minds.
Kelly Joan Whitmer
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226243771
- eISBN:
- 9780226243801
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226243801.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Observing at the Orphanage uncovers the crucial contributions of Halle’s Orphanage to the broader scientific enterprise of the early eighteenth century. Founded by a group of German Lutherans known ...
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Observing at the Orphanage uncovers the crucial contributions of Halle’s Orphanage to the broader scientific enterprise of the early eighteenth century. Founded by a group of German Lutherans known as Pietists in 1695, this Orphanage became the showplace of a “universal seminar” that was affiliated with the newly founded University of Halle and the Berlin Academy of Sciences, forged lasting connections with Tsar Peter the Great and later became the headquarters of the world’s first Protestant mission to India. Yet, due to its reputation as a ‘Pietist’ enclave inhabited mainly by young people, the Orphanage has not been taken seriously as a scientific community. Using a variety of underutilized materials from the organization’s archive, Observing shows how those involved as teachers and pupils refined a range of experimental and observational procedures using material models and instruments and endeavoured to turn eclecticism into a scientific methodology. It calls into question a longstanding tendency to view German Pietists as anti-science and anti-Enlightenment and situates the Orphanage within an ambitious series of schemes for social and educational reform designed to confront the unfriendly culture of disputation still associated with German universities. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and his friend, mathematician E. W. von Tschirnhaus, produced some of these schemes and considered the founding of Halle’s Orphanage to be in step with their efforts to promote a new culture of public science centred on the school, wherein cadres of skilled scientific observers pursued collaborative research immersed an atmosphere of friendship and mutual respect.Less
Observing at the Orphanage uncovers the crucial contributions of Halle’s Orphanage to the broader scientific enterprise of the early eighteenth century. Founded by a group of German Lutherans known as Pietists in 1695, this Orphanage became the showplace of a “universal seminar” that was affiliated with the newly founded University of Halle and the Berlin Academy of Sciences, forged lasting connections with Tsar Peter the Great and later became the headquarters of the world’s first Protestant mission to India. Yet, due to its reputation as a ‘Pietist’ enclave inhabited mainly by young people, the Orphanage has not been taken seriously as a scientific community. Using a variety of underutilized materials from the organization’s archive, Observing shows how those involved as teachers and pupils refined a range of experimental and observational procedures using material models and instruments and endeavoured to turn eclecticism into a scientific methodology. It calls into question a longstanding tendency to view German Pietists as anti-science and anti-Enlightenment and situates the Orphanage within an ambitious series of schemes for social and educational reform designed to confront the unfriendly culture of disputation still associated with German universities. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and his friend, mathematician E. W. von Tschirnhaus, produced some of these schemes and considered the founding of Halle’s Orphanage to be in step with their efforts to promote a new culture of public science centred on the school, wherein cadres of skilled scientific observers pursued collaborative research immersed an atmosphere of friendship and mutual respect.