THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO

LEIBNIZ

This is a further volume in a series of companions to major

philosophers. Each volume contains specially commissioned
essays by an international team of scholars together with a
substantial bibliography, and will serve as a reference work
for students and nonspecialists. One aim of the series is to
dispel the intimidation that readers may feel when faced with
the work of a difficult and challenging thinker.
Gottfried Leibniz was a remarkable thinker who made fun-
damental contributions not only to philosophy but also to
the development of modern mathematics and science. At
the center of Leibniz's philosophy stands his metaphysics,
an ambitious attempt to discover the nature of reality
through the use of unaided reason. This volume provides a
systematic and comprehensive account of the full range of
Leibniz's thought, exploring the metaphysics in detail and
showing its subtle and complex relationship to his views on
logic, language, physics, and theology. Other chapters exam-
ine the intellectual context of his thought and its reception
in the I 8th century.
New readers and nonspecialists will find this the most ac-
cessible and comprehensive guide to Leibniz currently avail-
able. Advanced students and specialists will find a conspec-
tus of recent developments in the interpretation of Leibniz.

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 O T H E R V O L U M E S I N T H E SERIES OF C A M B R I D G E
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 The Cambridge Companion to
LEIBNIZ
Edited by Nicholas Jolley
University of California, San Diego

CAMBRIDGE
UNIVERSITY PRESS

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 To the memory of Albert Heinekamp

PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

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O Cambridge University Press 1995

This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception

and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
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the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 1995

Reprinted 1995, 1996, 1998

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 CONTENTS

List of Contributors vii

Abbreviations ix
I Introduction I
N I C H O L A S JOLLEY

2 G. W. Leibniz, life and works

ROGER ARIEW

3 The seventeenth-century intellectual background

STUART BROWN

4 Metaphysics: The early period to the Discourse

on Metaphysics
C H R I S T I A M E R C E R A N D R.C. SLEIGH, JR.

5 Metaphysics: The late period

DONALD RUTHERFORD

6 The theory of knowledge

ROBERT MCRAE

7 Philosophy and logic

G . H. R. P A R K I N S O N

8 Philosophy and language in Leibniz

DONALD RUTHERFORD

9 Leibniz: Physics and philosophy

DANIEL GARBER

10 Leibniz's ontological and cosmological arguments

DAVID BLUMENFELD

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 vi Contents
II Perfection and happiness in the best
possible world
DAVID B L U M E N F E L D

12 Leibniz's moral philosophy

GREGORY BROWN

13 The reception of Leibniz in the

eighteenth century
CATHERINE WILSON

Bibliography
Index

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 CONTRIBUTORS

R O G E R A R I E W is Professor of Philosophy at Virginia Polytechnic

Institute and State University. He is the translator of Martial
Gueroult, Descartes' Philosophy According to the Order o f Reasons
(1984-5) and of Pierre Duhem, Medieval Cosmology ( I98 5); the co-
translator of Leibniz: Philosophical Essays (1989);and the co-editor
of Revolution and Continuity; Essays i n the History and Philosophy
of Early Modern Science (1991).
D AVID B L U M E N F E L D , Professor of Philosophy and department chair
at Georgia State University, has published numerous articles on Leib-
niz, including "Leibniz on Contingency and Infinite Analysis," Phi-
losophy and Phenomenological Research (June1985,)and "Freedom,
Contingency, and Things Possible in Themselves," Philosophy and
Phenomenological Research (September 1988)(reprinted in V. Chap-
pell [ed.], Essays on Early Modern Philosophers, vol. I ~ J .
GREGORY BROWN is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Uni-
versity of Houston. He is the author of a number of articles on
Leibniz and Descartes, some of which have recently been reprinted
in Georges J.D. Moyal (ed.),Descartes: Critical Assessments (1991)
and in R.S. Woolhouse (ed.), Leibniz: Critical Assessments (1994).
~ T U A R TB R O W N , Professor of Philosophy at the Open University,
Milton Keynes; is the author of Leibniz (1984).He is the co-editor of
an English edition of The Discourse on Metaphysics and Related
Writings (1988)and is the editor of Nicolas Malebranche: His Philo-
sophical Critics and Successors (1991).
D A N I E L G A R B E R is Professor of Philosophy and Chairman of the
Department of Philosophy at the University of Chicago. The author
vii
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 viii Contributors
of Descartes7MetaphysicalPhysics (1992)~he is also the CO-translator
(with Roger Ariew) of Leibniz: Philosophical Essays (1989)and the
co-editor (with Michael Ayers) of the forthcoming Cambridge His-
tory of Seventeenth-Century Philosophy. At present he is working on
an annotated edition of J.-B. Morin's seminal Astrologia Gallica.
N I C H O L A S J o L L E Y is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Ca-
lifornia, San Diego; author of Leibniz and Locke: A Study of the New
Essays on Human Understanding (1984)and The Light of the Soul:
Theories of Ideas in Leibniz, Malebranche, and Descartes (1990).
ROBERT MCRAE is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the Univer-
sity of Toronto, and the author of The Problem of the Unity of the
Sciences: Bacon to Kant (1961) and Leibniz: Perception, Appercep-
tion, and Thought (1976).
CHRISTIA M E R C E RAssistant
, Professor of Philosophy at Columbia
University, is the author of Leibniz's Metaphysics: Its Origins and
Development (forthcoming).
G . H.R. P A R K I N S O N is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the Uni-
versity of Reading. His numerous books include Spinoza's Theory of
Knowledge (1954)~Logic and Reality in Leibniz's Metaphysics
(1965)~ Leibniz on Human Freedom (1970)~ and Georg Lukacs (1977).
He is also a General Editor of the Routledge History of Philosophy
(10vols., 1993-).

DONALD R U T H E R F O RAssociate
D, Professor of Philosophy at Em-
ory University, is the author of Leibniz and the Rational Order of
Nature (forthcoming).He is currently at work on a new edition and
translation of the Leibniz-Des Bosses correspondence.
R .C . S L E I G H JR.,
, is Professor of Philosophy at the University of
Massachusetts at Amherst. He is the author of Leibniz and Arnauld:
A Commentary on their Correspondence (1990) and co-editor (with
Daniel Garber) of the Yale Leibniz series.
C A T H E R I N E W I L S O N ,Professor of Philosophy and department
chair at the University of Alberta, has published articles on Des-
cartes, Leibniz, and Malebranche, as well as Leibniz's Metaphysics:
A Historical and Comparative Study (1989)and a forthcoming book
on the microscope in early modern science.

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 ABBREVIATIONS

A critical edition of Leibniz's collected writings is being prepared by

the German Academy of Sciences (see A below), but at present it is
far from complete. It is thus necessary to cite a number of partial
editions of Leibniz. Throughout this book, references to Leibniz's
works are made in parentheses in the main body of the text; a refer-
ence to a standard edition of the original texts (e.g. G) is generally
followed by a reference to an English translation (e.g., L). For addi-
tional works by Leibniz, see the Bibliography
For all other works cited in the notes at the end of the chapter, full
publication details may be found in the Bibliography

A: German Academy of Sciences (ed.)G. W. Leibniz: Samtliche

Schriften und Briefe. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1923-.
References are to series and volume.
AG: Ariew, R., and Garber, D. G.W. Leibniz: Philosophical Essays.
Indianapolis: Hackett, I 989.
BB: Bodemann, E. (ed.)Der Briefwechsel des Gottfried Wilhelm
Leibniz in der Koniglichen Offentlichen Bibliothek zu Han-
nover. Hannover: Hahn, 1895; reprinted Hildesheim, Olms, 1966.
BH: Bodemann, E. (ed.]Die Leibniz-Handschriften der
Koniglichen dffen tlichen Biblioth ek zu Hannover. Hannover :
Hahn; reprinted Hildesheim: Olms, I 966.
C: Couturat, L. (ed.] Opuscules et fragments inddits de Leibniz.
Paris: Alcan, 1903; reprinted Hildesheim: Olms, 196 I .
D: Duncan, G.M. (ed. and trans.) G.W. Leibniz: Works, 2nd ed.
New Haven: Tuttle, Morehouse and Taylor CO, 1908.
Du: Dutens, L.L. (ed.)G.G. . Leibnitii Opera Omnia, 6 vols.
Geneva, I 768.

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 X Abbreviations
E: Erdmann, J.E. (ed.)God. Guil. Leibnitii Opera philosophica
quae existant Latina, Gallica, Germanica omnia. Berlin:
Eichler, I 839-40; reprinted Aalen, Scientia Verlag, I 974.
FC: Foucher de Careil, A. (ed.)Nouvelles lettres et opuscules de
Leibniz. Paris: Auguste Durand, I 85 7; reprinted Hildesheim:
Olms, 1971.
G: Gerhardt, C.I. (ed.)Die Philosophischen Schriften von Leibniz,
7 vols. Berlin: Weidmann, 1875-90; reprinted Hildesheim:
Olms, 1965.
GM: Gerhardt, C.I. (ed.)Leibnizens Mathematische Schriften, 7
vols. Berlin: A. AsherIHalle: H.W. Schmidt, 1848-63; reprinted
Hildesheim: Olms, 1962.
Gr: Grua, G. (ed.) G.W. Leibniz: Textes inedits d'apres des
manuscrits he la Bibliotheque provinciale d7Hanovre.Paris:
Presses Universitaires de France, I 948.
Gu: Guhrauer, G.E., Leibniz's Deutsche Schriften. 2 vols. Berlin:
Veit, 1838-40.
GW: Gerhardt, C.I. (ed.)Briefwechsel zwischen Leibniz und
Christian Wolff. Halle: H.W. Schmidt, 1860; reprinted
Hildesheim: Olms, I 963.
H: Huggard, E.M. (trans.)G.W. Leibniz: Theodicy: Essays on the
Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man, and the Origin of Evil.
LaSalle, Ill.: Open Court, 1985.
K: Klopp, 0 . (ed.)Die Werke von Leibniz, erste Reihe, 11 vols.
Hannover: Klindworth, 1864-84.
L: Loemker, L.E. (ed.)G.W. Leibniz: Philosophical Papers and
Letters, 2nd ed. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1969.
M: Mollat, G. (ed.)Mittheilungen aus Leibnizens ungedruckten
Schriften. Leipzig: H. Haessel, 1893.
MB: Martin, R., Niall, D., and Brown, S. (trans. and eds.) G.W.
Leibniz: Discourse on Metaphysics and Related Writings.
Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1988.
MP: Mason, H.T. (trans.)and Parkinson, G.H.R. (intro.) The
Leibniz-Arnauld Correspondence. Manchester: Manchester
University Press, 1967.
P: Parkinson, G.H.R. (trans. and ed.) Leibniz: Philosophical
Writings. London: Dent, I 973.
Pk: Parkinson, G.H.R. G.W. Leibniz: De Summa Rerum:

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 Abbreviations xi
Metaphysical Papers I 675- I 676. New Haven and London: Yale
University Press, I 992.
PLP: Parkinson, G.H.R. (trans. and ed.) Leibniz: Logical Papers.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966.
R: Riley, P. (ed. and trans.) The Political Writings of Leibniz.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972.
RB: Remnant, P., and Bennett, J. (trans. and eds.) G.W. Leibniz:
New Essays on Human Understanding. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, I 98 I . The pagination of Remnant and Bennett
is identical with that of the Academy edition (A VI.vi); one
reference thus serves for both.
S: Schrecker, P. and A.M. (trans.),Monadology and Other
Philosophical Essays (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1965).
VE: G.W. Leibniz: Vorausedition zur Reihe VI (Philosophische
Schriften) in der Ausgabe der Akademie der Wissenschaften der
DDR. Ed. Leibniz-Forschungsstelle der Universidt Miinster
(Miinster, I 982-).
W: Wiener, P.P. (ed.),Leibniz: Selections (New York: Scribner's
and Sons, 195 I ) .

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