Leibniz: Determinist, Theist, Idealist

by Robert Merrihew Adams

Legendary since his own time as a universal genius, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) contributed significantly to almost every branch of learning, from mathematics to ecumenical theology. But the part of his work that is most studied today is probably his writings in metaphysics, which have been the focus of particularly lively philosophical discussion in the last twenty years or so.

Leibniz's writings in metaphysics contain one of the great classic systems of modern philosophy, but the system must be pieced together from a vast and miscellaneous array of manuscripts, letters, articles, and books, in a way that makes especially strenuous demands on scholarship. This book presents an in-depth interpretation of three important parts of Leibniz's metaphysics, thoroughly grounded in the texts as well as in philosophical analysis and critique. The three areas discussed are the metaphysical part of Leibniz's philosophy of logic, his essentially theological treatment of the central issues of ontology, and his theory of substance (the theory of monads).

Genres: Philosophy

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Frank Spencer]

Hard reading, but it is all here, I guess.

[Molsa Roja(s)]

It is a very complete, perhaps too much, study of Leibniz's thought evolution throughout the years. There is so much in here, and so much did his thought change, that it really becomes painful, at some uncertain point, to keep on going. Nevertheless, the author has done a magnificent job, and it's certainly Leibniz's fault and not Merrihew's that his philosophy is incoherent, even if interesting due to its excentricness.