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72God's Phenomena and the Pre-Established HarmonyStudia Leibnitiana 19 (2): 200-214. 1987.In this paper I wish to examine the nature and role of "the phenomena of God" in Leinbiz's mature thought. In the first part of the paper, I discuss the nature of the universal harmony and argue that they are the perceptiual states of finite substances and the relations among them that constitute God's phenomena. In the second part of the paper, I attempt to specify the theoretical role that God's phenomena play in Leibniz's phenomenalism. This leads finally to a discussion of Leibniz's teleolog…Read more
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34Did Samuel Clarke really disavow action at a distance in his correspondence with Leibniz?: Newton, Clarke, and Bentley on gravitation and action at a distanceStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 60 38-47. 2016.
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13The Leibniz-Caroline-Clarke Correspondence (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2023."The documents gathered in this volume cut a winding path through the tumultuous final thirty-three months of Leibniz's life, from March 1714 to his death on 14 November 1716. The disputes with Newton and his followers over the discovery of the calculus and, later, over the issues in natural philosophy and theology that came to dominate Leibniz's correspondence with Samuel Clarke certainly loom large in the story of these years. But as the title of this volume is intended to convey, the letters …Read more
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14Leibniz on Compossibility and Possible Worlds (edited book)Springer. 2016.This volume brings together a number of original articles by leading Leibniz scholars to address the meaning and significance of Leibniz’s notions of compossibility and possible worlds. In order to avoid the conclusion that everything that exists is necessary, or that all possibles are actual, as Spinoza held, Leibniz argued that not all possible substances are compossible, that is, capable of coexisting. In Leibniz’s view, the compossibility relation divides all possible substances into disjoin…Read more
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89Miracles in the Best of all Possible Worlds: Leibniz's Dilemma and Leibniz's RazorHistory of Philosophy Quarterly 12 (1): 19-39. 1995.In the first section of this paper I discuss what Leibniz meant by a miracle and why Leibniz’s definition of the best of all possible worlds implies that it is a world in which miracles are minimized. In the second part of the paper I argue that human happiness within the best of all possible worlds also requires, on Leibniz’s principles, that miracles must there be minimized. In the third section of the paper I consider what, if any, miracles actually remain possible for Leibniz within the best…Read more
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27Leibniz's Moral PhilosophyIn Nicholas Jolley (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Leibniz, Cambridge University Press. pp. 411--41. 1994.
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33Leibniz’s Universal Jurisprudence (review)International Philosophical Quarterly 38 (1): 100-101. 1998.
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35Vera Entia : The Nature of Mathematical Objects in DescartesJournal of the History of Philosophy 18 (1): 23-37. 1980.
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69Leibniz on the Ground of Moral Normativity and ObligationThe Leibniz Review 26 11-62. 2016.My aim in this paper is to elucidate Leibniz’s account of moral normativity and the relation between motivation and obligation. I argue against the recent interpretation of Christopher Johns, according to which Leibniz’s moral theory is actually a deontological theory, having more in common with Kantian moral theory than with any form of consequentialism. I argue that for Leibniz reason is not itself the source of practical normativity and real obligation; the source of that is rather the agent’…Read more
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107Disinterested Love: Understanding Leibniz's Reconciliation of Self- and Other-Regarding MotivesBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 19 (2): 265-303. 2011.While he was in the employ of the Elector of Mainz, between 1668 and 1671, Leibniz produced a series of important studies in natural law. One of these, dated between 1670 and 1671, is especially noteworthy since it contains Leibniz's earliest sustained attempt to develop an account of justice. Central to this account is the notion of what Leibniz would later come to call `disinterested love', a notion that remained essentially unchanged in Leibniz's work from this period to the end of his life. …Read more
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35Leibniz's Endgame and the Ladies of the CourtsJournal of the History of Ideas 65 (1): 75-100. 2004.In 1676 Leibniz reluctantly left Paris, headed for Hanover, to take up the position of counselor and librarian to Johann Friedrich, duke of BrunswickâLüneburgâCalenberg. He was to remain in the employ of a succession of dukes and electors of Hanoverâthe last being Georg Ludwig, who became George I of England in 1714âuntil his death in November 1716. During this time he also became a familiar at the court in Berlin of the elector of Brandenburg (later King of Prussia) and at the imperial…Read more
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42Review of Maria Rosa Antognazza, Leibniz: An Intellectual Biography (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2009 (2): 107-108. 2009.This is a superbly crafted and exhaustively researched account of the development of Leibniz’s thought, his ambitious plans and undertakings, his myriad intellectual engagements, and his ceaseless comings and goings across Europe. It captures, accurately and in great detail, the remarkably expansive mind of a singularly creative thinker. It is an extraordinary achievement, for the task of writing an intellectual biography of Leibniz is huge. To read even a portion of what he wrote and read, in t…Read more
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125Leibniz's theodicy and the confluence of worldly goodsJournal of the History of Philosophy 26 (4): 571-591. 1988.
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70Leibniz's mathematical argument against a soul of the worldBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 13 (3). 2005.This Article does not have an abstract
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119Leibniz on Wholes, Unities, and Infinite NumberThe Leibniz Review 10 21-51. 2000.One argument that Leibniz employed to rule out the possibility of a world soul appears to turn on the assumption that the very notion of an infinite number or of an infinite whole is inconsistent. This argument was considered in a series of three papers published in The Leibniz Review: in the first, by Laurence Carlin, the argument was delineated and analyzed; in the second, by myself, the argument was criticized and rejected; in the third, by Richard Arthur, an attempt was made to defend Leibni…Read more
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82Is there a pre-established harmony of aggregates in the Leibnizian dynamics, or do non-substantial bodies interact?Journal of the History of Philosophy 30 (1): 53-75. 1992.
Areas of Interest
Epistemology |
Logic and Philosophy of Logic |