Leibniz's Metaphysics : A Historical and Comparative Study / Catherine Wilson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wilson, Catherine, author.

Series:

Princeton legacy library.

Studies in intellectual history and the history of philosophy.

Studies in Intellectual History and the History of Philosophy ; 2422

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, Freiherr von, 1646-1716.

Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm.

Metaphysics--History--17th century.

Metaphysics.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (361 p.)

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2015]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This study of the metaphysics of G. W. Leibniz gives a clear picture of his philosophical development within the general scheme of seventeenth-century natural philosophy. Catherine Wilson examines the shifts in Leibniz's thinking as he confronted the major philosophical problems of his era. Beginning with his interest in artificial languages and calculi for proof and discovery, the author proceeds to an examination of Leibniz's early theories of matter and motion, to the phenomenalistic turn in his theory of substance and his subsequent de-emphasis of logical determinism, and finally to his doctrines of harmony and optimization. Specific attention is given to Leibniz's understanding of Descartes and his successors, Malebranche and Spinoza, and the English philosophers Newton, Cudworth, and Locke.Wilson analyzes Leibniz's complex response to the new mechanical philosophy, his discontent with the foundations on which it rested, and his return to the past to locate the resources for reconstructing it. She argues that the continuum-problem is the key to an understanding not only of Leibniz's monadology but also of his views on the substantiality of the self and the impossibility of external causal influence. A final chapter considers the problem of Leibniz-reception in the post-Kantian era, and the difficulty of coming to terms with a metaphysics that is not only philosophically "critical" but, at the same time, "compensatory."Originally published in 2050.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

Introduction

I. language, logic, encyclopedia

II. First philosophy

III. The Discourse on Metaphysics

IV. Metaphysical foundations for natural science

V. Atom, substance, soul

VI. Leibniz's theories of space, motion, and gravity

VII. Experience and the self: the New Essays

VIII. The problem of theodicy

IX. Critical and compensatory metaphysics

Works consulted

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [332]-344).

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

ISBN:

9780691653846

0691653844

9781400879571

1400879574

OCLC:

1132220756