THIRD PILLAR - Portal για την Φιλοσοφία

Athena's Temple

Athena's Temple
ΑΕΙΦΩΤΟΣ ΛΥΧΝΟΣ

Search This Blog

Showing posts with label Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz. Show all posts

Thursday, November 19, 2009

"Monadology" by Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz,1714


..
Monads are the elements of all things ;
they are simple substances,created all at once out of nothing ;
they can neither be altered in quality nor changed internally by any other created thing.
.
No two monads are perfectly alike ;
for every individual monad there is some internal difference which accounts for its particular nature.
.
Perception and apperception are the two chief types of activities by which monads exhibit their natures.
.
Men are distinguished from the animals by their knowledge of necessary and eternal truths ; man reasons according to the principles of contradiction and sufficient reason.
.
Only through God's medication is interaction or knowledge of any sort possible ;
although the monads are isolated,they function and perceive according to God's preestablished harmony.
.
This is the best of all possible worlds,for God's goodness made him choose it from the infinite number of possible universes.
..

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

"New essays on the human understanding" by Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz,1765


..
Locke was mistaken in thinking that at birth the mind is like a blank tablet ;
certain ideas are innate,but they rise to consciousness only when the mind is provoked by experience.
.
Sense perception is active,not passive.
.
Locke's conception of simple ideas ignores such physical phenomena as the color spectrum and light waves ; and his distinction between primary and secondary qualities is not necessary since it is possible to qualify perceptual generalizations carefully enough to allow for individual differences.
.
Locke's suggestion that substance might be nothing but a collection of properties cannot be tolerated for reason has difficulty in accepting the ideas of properties which are not the properties of anything.
.
External spatial and temporal relations cannot guarantee identity ;
it is by the internal modifications of substance that an individual acquires its identity.
.
An exact analysis of the signification of words would show us the workings of the understanding.
..

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

"Theodicy" by Leibniz,1710


..
The truths of philosophy and theology cannot contradict each other.
.
If God is all-good,all-wise,and all-powerful,how did evil come into the world ?
.
The answer is that some error is unavoidable in any creature less perfect than its creator ;
furthermore,all possible worlds contain some evil,and evil improves the good by contrast.
.
Since man has free will,he is responsible for his acts ;
God's foreknowledge of the course of man's inclinations did not involve predestination.
.
The soul is coordinated with the body by a pre-established harmony.
.