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214Gottfried Wilhelm LeibnizStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2008.Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) was one of the great thinkers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and is known as the last “universal genius”. He made deep and important contributions to the fields of metaphysics, epistemology, logic, philosophy of religion, as well as mathematics, physics, geology, jurisprudence, and history. Even the eighteenth century French atheist and materialist Denis Diderot, whose views could not have stood in greater opposition to those of Leibniz, could n…Read more
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199Perfection, power and the passions in Spinoza and LeibnizRevue Roumaine de la Philosophie 51 (1-2): 21-38. 2007.In a short piece written most likely in the 1690s and given the title by Loemker of “On Wisdom,” Leibniz says the following: “...we see that happiness, pleasure, love, perfection, being, power, freedom, harmony, order, and beauty are all tied to each other, a truth which is rightly perceived by few.”1 Why is this? That is, why or how are these concepts tied to each other? And, why have so few understood this relation? Historians of philosophy are familiar with the fact that both Spinoza and Leib…Read more
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130Between Two Worlds: A Reading of Descartes’s MeditationsJournal of the History of Philosophy 48 (1). 2009.In his Between Two Worlds: A Reading of Descartes’s Meditations, John Carriero presents a sustained and sensitive interpretation of this seminal work of modern philosophy. The two worlds of the title are the worlds of Scholastic philosophy on the one side, and of the mechanical philosophy on the other, and it is Carriero’s argument that the Meditations are most helpfully understood against the background of Thomistic Scholasticism. In particular, Carriero shows that there is a deep difference be…Read more
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1Leibniz, Kant and Frege on the Existence PredicateIn H. Breger, J. Herbst & S. Erdner (eds.), Natur Und Subjekt: Akten des Ix. Internationalen Leibniz-Kongresses, Hartmann. 2011.In this paper, the author examines Leibniz inconsistent treatments of the existence predicate in his formulations of the ontological argument and elsewhere. It is shown that, contrary to expectations, Leibniz at times adumbrates insights often attributed to Kant and Frege.
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125Marks and traces: Leibnizian scholarship past, present, and futurePerspectives on Science 10 (1): 123-146. 2002.
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193Leibniz and Locke on natural kindsIn Vlad Alexandrescu (ed.), Branching Off: The Early Moderns in Quest for the Unity of Knowledge, Zeta Books. 2009.One of the more interesting topics debated by Leibniz and Locke and one that has received comparatively little critical commentary is the nature of essences and the classification of the natural world.1 This topic, moreover, is of tremendous importance, occupying a position at the intersection of the metaphysics of individual beings, modality, epistemology, and philosophy of language. And, while it goes back to Plato, who wondered if we could cut nature at its joints, as Nicholas Jolley has poin…Read more
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97Kant’s ThinkerJournal of the History of Philosophy 49 (4): 502-503. 2011.Kant’s Thinker is an excellent and important addition to the literature. In it, Patricia Kitcher aims at arriving at a comprehensive understanding of Kant’s theory of the cognitive subject. To this end, she analyzes a central component of the most notoriously difficult part of the Critique of Pure Reason, the theory of the unity of apperception in the chapter on the Transcendental Deduction of the Categories. In Kitcher’s view, the ultimate payoff of such a study is that Kant’s theory can “provi…Read more
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100Keller, Pierre. Kant and the Demands of Self-Consciousness (review)Review of Metaphysics 54 (2): 446-447. 2000.
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87Descartes' Konzeption des Systems der Philosophie (review)Journal of the History of Philosophy 39 (3): 440-442. 2001.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Journal of the History of Philosophy 39.3 (2001) 440-442 [Access article in PDF] Reinhard Lauth. Descartes ' Konzeption des Systems der Philosophie. Stuttgart (Bad Cannstatt): Frommann-Holzboog, 1998. Pp. x + 227 pp. Cloth, DM 64.00. Reinhard Lauth's Descartes ' Konzeption des Systems der Philosophie is an interesting addition to the literature on Descartes. Written by a renowned scholar of German Idealism, it does not represent an a…Read more
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1Blumenbach and Kant on Mechanism and Teleology in Nature: The Case of the Formative DriveIn Justin E. H. Smith (ed.), The Problem of Animal Generation in Early Modern Philosophy, Cambridge University Press. 2006.
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170On an Unpublished Manuscript of Leibniz *: New Light on the Vinculum Substantiale and the Correspondence with Des BossesThe Leibniz Review 8 69-79. 1998.Notiones sunt Entium, aut Respectuum. Entia sunt Res aut Modi. Res sunt substantiae aut phaenomenae. Substantiae sunt vel simplices vel compositae. Substantia simplex est Monas; Monas autem est vel primitiva Deus, a quo omnia; vel derivativa. Et ha[e]c vel perceptiva tantum, vel etiam sensitiva; et haec vel sensitiva tantum vel etiam intellectiva quae et spiritus appellatur. Rursus Monas vel est Anima corporis vel est separata; haec vel creata (ut plerique volunt etsi ego an creata sint monades …Read more
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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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94The platonic LeibnizBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 11 (1). 2003.This Article does not have an abstract
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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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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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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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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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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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