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65Leibniz and AdamThe Leibniz Review 5 29-32. 1995.The book under review contains a selection of the papers presented at the conference “Leibniz and Adam,” held in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem from December 29, 1991 to January 2, 1992. The object of the conference and the book was to consider the role of Adam, the first man, in Leibniz’s thought and, in doing so, “to provide an unusual view of the interrelations between his metaphysics, philosophy of religion, philosophy of language, theory of knowledge, logic, attidude vis-à-vis mysticism, philosophy…Read more
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96Idealism and Corporeal Substance in Leibniz's MetaphysicsIn Stewart Duncan & Antonia LoLordo (eds.), Debates in Modern Philosophy: Essential Readings and Contemporary Responses, Routledge. pp. 132. 2012.
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94The platonic LeibnizBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 11 (1). 2003.This Article does not have an abstract
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36Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity, 1650-1750 (review) (review)Journal of the History of Philosophy 40 (3): 399-400. 2002.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Journal of the History of Philosophy 40.3 (2002) 399-400 [Access article in PDF] Book Review Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity, 1650-1750 Jonathan I. Israel. Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity, 1650-1750. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. Pp. xx + 810. Cloth, $45.00. Jonathan Israel's goal in this excellent book is to show that we cannot fully understand the high Enlightenme…Read more
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282“Becoming who one is” in Spinoza and NietzscheIyyun 50 327-38. 2001.The connection between Spinoza and Nietzsche has often been remarked upon in the literature on the two thinkers.1 Not surprisingly, Nietzsche himself first noticed the similarity between his (earlier) thought and the thought of Spinoza, remarking to Overbeck in an oft-quoted postcard, “I have a precursor, and what a precursor!” He goes on to say, “Not only is his over-all tendency like mine – making knowledge the most powerful affect – but in five main points of his doctrine I recognize myself; …Read more
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95Matter, Inertia, and the Contingency of Laws of Nature in Leibniz and Kant – Some Points of ComparisonIn Stefano Bacin, Alfredo Ferrarin, Claudio La Rocca & Margit Ruffing (eds.), Kant und die Philosophie in weltbürgerlicher Absicht. Akten des XI. Internationalen Kant-Kongresses, De Gruyter. pp. 147-158. 2013.
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102Review: Westphal, Kant's Transcendental Proof of RealismJournal of the History of Philosophy 44 (4): 665-666. 2006.Brandon Look - Kant's Transcendental Proof of Realism - Journal of the History of Philosophy 44:4 Journal of the History of Philosophy 44.4 665-666 Muse Search Journals This Journal Contents Reviewed by Brandon C. Look University of Kentucky Kenneth R. Westphal. Kant's Transcendental Proof of Realism. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Pp. x + 299. Cloth, $80.00. Westphal's book is a rich and exciting contribution to the field of Kant studies. Its claims run counter to much contemporary…Read more
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93Leibniz and the Shelf of EssenceThe Leibniz Review 15 27-47. 2005.This paper addresses D. C. Williams’s question, “How can Leibniz know that he is a member of the actual world and not merely a possible monad on the shelf of essence?” A variety of answers are considered. Ultimately, it is argued that no particular perception of a state of affairs in the world can warrant knowledge of one’s actuality, nor can the awareness of any property within oneself; rather, it is the nature of experience itself, with the flow of perceptions, that guarantees our actuality. A…Read more
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83Kant's Transcendental Proof of Realism (review)Journal of the History of Philosophy 44 (4): 665-666. 2006.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Kant’s Transcendental Proof of RealismBrandon C. LookKenneth R. Westphal. Kant’s Transcendental Proof of Realism. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Pp. x + 299. Cloth, $80.00.Westphal's book is a rich and exciting contribution to the field of Kant studies. Its claims run counter to much contemporary discussion of Kant's theoretical philosophy and indeed challenge some of Kant's fundamental doctrines, but the arg…Read more
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791Existence, Essence, et Expression: Leibniz sur 'toutes les absurdités du Dieu de Spinoza'In Pierre-Francois Moreau & Mogens Laerke (eds.), Spinoza / Leibniz Rencontres, controverses, réceptions, Pups. pp. 57-82. 2014.That Leibniz finds the philosophy of Spinoza horrifyingly wrong is obvious to anyone who reads Leibniz’s work; that Leibniz finds Spinozism so seductive that his own system is in danger of collapsing into it is less obvious but, I believe, equally true. The difference here is not so much between an exoteric and an esoteric philosophy suggested by Russell2 but between a thorough-going rationalism on the part of Spinoza and Leibniz’s “mitigated rationalism” – mitigated by the exigencies of his ort…Read more
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73On an Unpublished Manuscript of Leibniz *: New Light on the Vinculum Substantiale and the Correspondence with Des BossesThe Leibniz Review 8 69-79. 1998.
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209Leibniz’s Metaphysics and Metametaphysics: Idealism, Realism, and the Nature of SubstancePhilosophy Compass 5 (11): 871-879. 2010.According to the standard view of his metaphysics, Leibniz endorses idealism: the thesis that the world is made up solely of minds or monads and their perceptual and appetitive states. Recently,this view has been challenged by some scholars, who argue that Leibniz can be seen as admitting corporeal substances, that is, animals or embodied souls, into his ontology, and that, therefore, it is false to attribute a strict idealism to him. Subtler accounts suggest that Leibniz begins his philosophica…Read more
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24Leibniz and Adam (review)The Leibniz Review 5 29-32. 1995.The book under review contains a selection of the papers presented at the conference “Leibniz and Adam,” held in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem from December 29, 1991 to January 2, 1992. The object of the conference and the book was to consider the role of Adam, the first man, in Leibniz’s thought and, in doing so, “to provide an unusual view of the interrelations between his metaphysics, philosophy of religion, philosophy of language, theory of knowledge, logic, attidude vis-à-vis mysticism, philosophy…Read more
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87Tom Sorell, G. A. J. Rogers, and Jill Kaye, eds. Scientia in Early Modern Philosophy: Seventeenth-Century Thinkers on Demonstrative Knowledge from First Principles. Dordrecht: Springer, 2010. Pp. xvi+139. $139.00 (review)Hopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 1 (2): 367-371. 2011.
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Roger S. Woolhouse: Leibniz's' New System'(1695)British Journal for the History of Philosophy 7 (1): 173-175. 1999.
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8Continuum Companion to Leibniz (edited book)Continuum. 2011.With entries written by leading scholars in the field of Modern Philosophy, this Companion is an accessible and authoritative reference guide to Leibniz's life, work and legacy. The book includes extended biographical sketches, and an up-to-date fully comprehensive bibliography. Gathering all these resources in one place, the book is an extremely valuable tool for those interested in Leibniz and the era in which he wrote"--Back cover.
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73Monaden im Diskurs. Monas, Monaden, Monadologien (1600 bis 1770) by Hanns-Peter NeumannJournal of the History of Philosophy 53 (3): 550-551. 2015.
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806Leibniz and the Substance of the Vinculum SubstantialeJournal of the History of Philosophy 38 (2): 203-220. 2000.This paper analyzes Leibniz's notorious 'vinculum substantiale', or 'substantial bond', as it appears in his correspondence with the Jesuit philosopher and theologian, Bartholomew Des Bosses. It is shown that, while Leibniz employs the vinculum to address a problem relating to the unity of corporeal substance, it ultimately violates other key principles in his philosophy.
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33Leibniz and the Shelf of EssenceThe Leibniz Review 15 27-47. 2005.This paper addresses D. C. Williams’s question, “How can Leibniz know that he is a member of the actual world and not merely a possible monad on the shelf of essence?” A variety of answers are considered. Ultimately, it is argued that no particular perception of a state of affairs in the world can warrant knowledge of one’s actuality, nor can the awareness of any property within oneself; rather, it is the nature of experience itself, with the flow of perceptions, that guarantees our actuality. A…Read more
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12Kant's Transcendental Proof of Realism (review) (review)Journal of the History of Philosophy 44 (4): 665-666. 2006.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Kant’s Transcendental Proof of RealismBrandon C. LookKenneth R. Westphal. Kant’s Transcendental Proof of Realism. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Pp. x + 299. Cloth, $80.00.Westphal's book is a rich and exciting contribution to the field of Kant studies. Its claims run counter to much contemporary discussion of Kant's theoretical philosophy and indeed challenge some of Kant's fundamental doctrines, but the arg…Read more
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10The Leibniz-des Bosses Correspondence (edited book)Yale University Press. 2007.This volume is a critical edition of the ten-year correspondence between Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, one of Europe’s most influential early modern thinkers, and Bartholomew Des Bosses, a Jesuit theologian who was keen to bring together Leibniz’s philosophy and the Aristotelian philosophy and religious doctrines accepted by his order. The letters offer crucial insights into Leibniz’s final metaphysics and into the intellectual life of the eighteenth century. Brandon C. Look and Donald Rutherford p…Read more
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20From the Metaphysical Union of Mind and Body to the Real Union of Monads: Leibniz on Supposita and Vincula SubstantialiaSouthern Journal of Philosophy 36 (4): 505-529. 2010.
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147On monadic domination in Leibniz’s metaphysicsBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 10 (3). 2002.I shall proceed in the following way. In parts II and III of this paper, I shall discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the interpretation put forward by Robert Merrihew Adams in his recent book, and I shall expand upon this account, discussing a crucial but hitherto unexamined aspect of the relation between dominant and subordinate monads, reconstructed from Leibniz's letters to Des Bosses and his essays of 1714, _Principles of Nature and Grace and Monadology. In part IV of this paper, I shall…Read more
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7Books Received: Volume 11, Issue 1 (review)British Journal for the History of Philosophy 11 (1): 173-178. 2003.
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171Leibniz's modal metaphysicsStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2008.In the main article on Leibniz, it was claimed that Leibniz's philosophy can be seen as a reaction to the Cartesian theory of corporeal substance and the necessitarianism of Spinoza and Hobbes. This entry will address this second aspect of his philosophy. In the course of his writings, Leibniz developed an approach to questions of modality—necessity, possibility, contingency—that not only served an important function within his general metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophical theology but al…Read more
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669Grounding the Principle of Sufficient Reason: Leibnizian Rationalism versus the Humean ChallengeIn Carlos Fraenkel, Dario Perinetti & Justin E. H. Smith (eds.), The Rationalists: Between Tradition and Innovation, Springer. pp. 201--219. 2010.This essay examines arguments offered in support of the Principle of Sufficient Reason (PSR) by Leibniz and his followers as well as Hume's critique of the PSR. It is shown that Leibniz has a defensible argument for the PSR, whereas the arguments of his self-proclaimed followers are weak. Thus, Hume's challenge is met by Leibniz, by Wolff and Baumgarten not so much.
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42Leibniz and Kant (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2021.Leibniz and Kant were the most important figures in German philosophy from the late 17th to the early 19th century. This volume examines the relationships between their philosophies, illuminating fundamental questions of metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophical theology, and assessing Kant's understanding of his philosophical predecessor.
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