Paul Lodge - Böcker

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) is one of the most important and influential philosophers of the modern period. He offered a wealth of original ideas in metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and philosophical theology, among them his signature doctrines on substance and monads, pre-established harmony, and optimism. This volume contains introductory chapters on eleven of Leibniz's key philosophical writings, from youthful works ("Confessio philosophi", "De summa rerum"), seminal middle-period writings ("Discourse on Metaphysics", "New System"), to masterpieces of his maturity ("Monadology", "Discourse on the Natural Theology of the Chinese"). It also covers his two main philosophical books (New Essays on Human Understanding and Theodicy), and three of his most important philosophical correspondences with Antoine Arnauld, Burcher De Volder, and Samuel Clarke. Written by internationally-renowned experts on Leibniz, the chapters offer clear, accessible accounts of the ideas and arguments of these key writings, along with valuable information about their composition and context. By focusing on the primary texts, they enable readers to attain a solid understanding of what each text says and why, and give them the confidence to read the texts themselves. Offering a detailed and chronological view of Leibniz's philosophy and its development through some of his most important writings, this volume is an invaluable guide for those encountering Leibniz for the first time.

This volume gathers together for the first time the philosophical journal articles that appeared during Leibniz's lifetime under his name or which would have been easily attributed to him due to other identifying marks. Its primary aim is to convey a sense of the way in which Leibniz's philosophical views would have been available to the reading public of the time. The distinction between the papers that Leibniz published that are philosophical and those that are concerned with what was then called 'natural philosophy' is somewhat arbitrary. However, the present volume is a companion to Leibniz: Journal Articles on Natural Philosophy (OUP, 2023), and all the articles that are plausible candidates for the label 'philosophical' can be found in one or the other. Among the thirty articles included here are seminal pieces such as 'Meditations on Knowledge, Truth, and Ideas', 'On the Emendation of First Philosophy', 'On Nature Itself', and the 'New System' and its accompanying 'explanations', along with Leibniz's responses to criticisms of the 'New System' by Pierre Bayle, René-Joseph de Tournemine, and François Lamy. Readers will also encounter less familiar pieces from the early 1690s in which Leibniz engages with Simon Foucher and offers a series of critical discussions of Descartes and Cartesian philosophy. Finally, the collection contains three extended reviews of works by other philosophers: Wolf Heinrich von Lüttichau' Pansophia, Samuel Pufendorf's On The Duty of Man and Citizen, and the Earl of Shaftesbury's Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times. In Three Volumes.

Unlike most of the other great philosophers Leibniz never wrote a magnum opus, so his philosophical correspondence is essential for an understanding of his views. This collection of essays by pre-eminent figures in the field of Leibniz scholarship is a most thorough account of Leibniz's philosophical correspondencee. It both illuminates Leibniz's philosophical views and pays due attention to the dialectical context in which the relevant passages from the letters occur. The result is a book of enormous value to all serious students of early-modern philosophy and the history of ideas.

Unlike most of the other great philosophers Leibniz never wrote a magnum opus, so his philosophical correspondence is essential for an understanding of his views. This collection of essays by pre-eminent figures in the field of Leibniz scholarship is a most thorough account of Leibniz's philosophical correspondencee. It both illuminates Leibniz's philosophical views and pays due attention to the dialectical context in which the relevant passages from the letters occur. The result is a book of enormous value to all serious students of early-modern philosophy and the history of ideas.

Locke and Leibniz on Substance gathers together papers by an international group of academic experts, examining the metaphysical concept of substance in the writings of these two towering philosophers of the early modern period. Each of these newly-commissioned essays considers important interpretative issues concerning the role that the notion of substance plays in the work of Locke and Leibniz, and its intersection with other key issues, such as personal identity. Contributors also consider the relationship between the two philosophers and contemporaries such as Descartes and Hume.