The ''Discourse on Metaphysics'' (french: Discours de métaphysique, 1686) is a short treatise by
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of mathema ...
in which he develops a philosophy concerning physical substance, motion and resistance of bodies, and God's role within the universe. It is one of the few texts presenting in a consistent form the earlier philosophy of Leibniz.
The ''Discourse'' is closely connected to the epistolary discussion which he carried with
Antoine Arnauld
Antoine Arnauld (6 February 16128 August 1694) was a French Catholic theologian, philosopher and mathematician. He was one of the leading intellectuals of the Jansenist group of Port-Royal and had a very thorough knowledge of patristics. Contem ...
. However Leibniz refrained from sending the full text and it remained unpublished until the mid 19th century.
[The first edition (in 1846 by Pertz) was from a copy but later the original manuscript was found and Henri Lestrienne published it in 1907; now it is printed in the ''Akademie Ausgabe'', Reihe VI, Vierter Band, p. 1529] Arnauld received only an abridged version in 37 points which resumed whole paragraphs and steered their discussion.
Summary
The metaphysical considerations proceed from God to the substantial world and back to the spiritual realm. The starting point for the work is the conception of God as ''an absolutely perfect being'' (I), that God is good but goodness exists independently of God (a rejection of
divine command theory
Divine command theory (also known as theological voluntarism) is a meta-ethical theory which proposes that an action's status as morally good is equivalent to whether it is commanded by God. The theory asserts that what is moral is determined ...
) (II), and that God has created the world in an ordered and perfect fashion (III–VII).
At the time of its writing ''Discourse'' made the controversial claim ''That the opinions of...
scholastic philosophers are not to be wholly despised'' (XI). Early work in
modern philosophy
Modern philosophy is philosophy developed in the modern era and associated with modernity. It is not a specific doctrine or school (and thus should not be confused with ''Modernism''), although there are certain assumptions common to much of it ...
during
the 17th century were based on a rejection of many of the precepts of medieval philosophy. Leibniz saw the failures of scholasticism merely as one of rigor. ''
fsome careful and meditative mind were to take the trouble to clarify and direct their thoughts in the manner of analytic geometers, he would find a great treasure of important truths, wholly demonstrable.''
Leibniz claimed that God's omnipotence was in no way impugned by the thought of evil, but was rather solidified. He endorsed the view that God chose the best of all possible worlds. In other words, Leibniz believed this world (or reality) to be the best there possibly could be — taking all facts into account, no better world could be imagined, even if we believed that we could think of something more perfect.
Leibniz's conception of physical substance is expanded upon in ''
The Monadology
The ''Monadology'' (french: La Monadologie, 1714) is one of Gottfried Leibniz's best known works of his later philosophy. It is a short text which presents, in some 90 paragraphs, a metaphysics of simple substances, or '' monads''.
Text
Dur ...
''.
See also
*
Problem of future contingents
Future contingent propositions (or simply, future contingents) are statements about states of affairs in the future that are ''contingent:'' neither necessarily true nor necessarily false.
The problem of future contingents seems to have been firs ...
Notes
References
*Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm.
Discourse on Metaphysics and the Monadology' (trans. George R. Montgomery). Prometheus Books, 1992 (first published by Open Court, 1902).
External links
*
'. A complete English translation by George R. Montgomery.
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1686 books
Works by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Metaphysics literature
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