Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) was hailed by Bertrand
Russell as ‘one of the supreme intellects of all time’. A towering figure
in seventeenth-century philosophy, he was the author of a complex
system of thought that has been championed and satirized in
equal measure, most famously in Voltaire’s
Candide
.
In this outstanding introduction to his philosophy, Nicholas Jolley examines
and assesses the whole of Leibniz’s philosophy. Beginning with
an account of Leibniz’s life and work, he carefully explains the core elements
of Leibniz’s metaphysics: his theories of substance, identity and
individuation; his doctrine of monads; and his important debate over
the nature of space and time with Newton’s champion, Samuel Clarke.
He then introduces Leibniz’s theories of mind, knowledge, and innate
ideas, showing how Leibniz anticipated the distinction between
conscious and unconscious states, before examining his doctrine of
free will and his solution to the problem of evil. An important feature
of the book is its survey of Leibniz’s moral and political philosophy,
an overlooked aspect of his work.
The final chapter assesses Leibniz’s legacy and the impact of his philosophy
on philosophy as a whole, particularly on the work of Immanuel
Kant. Throughout, Jolley places Leibniz in relation to some of the other
great philosophers, such as Descartes, Spinoza, and Locke, and discusses
Leibniz’s
key works, such as the
Monadology
and
Discourse on Metaphysics
This second edition has been revised throughout and includes a
new chapter on Leibniz and philosophy of language.