On Leibniz
eBook - PDF

On Leibniz

Expanded Edition

  1. English
  2. PDF
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

On Leibniz

Expanded Edition

About this book

Contemporary philosopher John Searle has characterized Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) as "the most intelligent human being who has ever lived." The German philosopher, mathematician, and logician invented calculus (independently of Sir Isaac Newton), topology, determinants, binary arithmetic, symbolic logic, rational mechanics, and much more. His metaphysics bequeathed a set of problems and approaches that have influenced the course of Western philosophy from Kant in the eighteenth century until the present day.

On Leibniz examines many aspects of Leibniz's work and life. This expanded edition adds new chapters that explore Leibniz's revolutionary deciphering machine; his theoretical interest in cryptography and its ties to algebra; his thoughts on eternal recurrence theory; his rebuttal of the thesis of improvability in the world and cosmos; and an overview of American scholarship on Leibniz.

Other chapters reveal Leibniz as a substantial contributor to theories of knowledge. Discussions of his epistemology and methodology, its relationship to John Maynard Keynes and Talmudic scholarship, broaden the traditional view of Leibniz. Rescher also views Leibniz's scholarly development and professional career in historical context. As a "philosopher courtier" to the Hanoverian court, Leibniz was associated with the leading intellectuals and politicians of his era, including Spinoza, Huygens, Newton, Queen Sophie Charlotte, and Tsar Peter the Great.

Rescher extrapolates the fundamentals of Leibniz's ontology: the theory of possible worlds, the world's contingency, space-time frameworks, and intermonadic relationships. In conclusion, Rescher positions Leibniz as a philosophical role model for today's scholars. He argues that many current problems can be effectively addressed with principles of process philosophy inspired by Leibniz's system of monadology.

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Yes, you can access On Leibniz by Nicholas Rescher in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Biological Sciences & Philosophy History & Theory. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Contents
  2. Preface
  3. Chapter 1. Leibniz on Possible Worlds
  4. Chapter 2. Contingentia Mundi: Leibniz on the World’s Contingency
  5. Chapter 3. Leibniz on Intermonadic Relations
  6. Chapter 4. Leibniz and the Plurality of Space-Time Frameworks
  7. Chapter 5. Leibniz and the Concept of a System
  8. Chapter 6. Leibniz and Issues of Eternal Recurrence
  9. Chapter 7. Leibnizian Neo-Platonism and Rational Mechanics
  10. Chapter 8. Leibniz and the World’s Improvability
  11. Chapter 9. The Epistemology of Inductive Reasoning in Leibniz
  12. Chapter 10. Leibniz, Keynes, and the Rabbis
  13. Chapter 11. Leibniz and Socialized Medicine
  14. Chapter 12. The Contributions of the Paris Period (1672–1676) to Leibniz’s Metaphysics
  15. Chapter 13. Leibniz Finds a Niche (1676–1677)
  16. Chapter 14. Leibniz Visits Vienna (1712–1714)
  17. Chapter 15. Leibniz Crosses the Atlantic
  18. Chapter 16. Leibniz and American Philosophy
  19. Chapter 17. Leibniz and Cryptography
  20. Chapter 18. Leibniz’s Machina Deciphratoria: A Seventeenth-Century Proto-Enigma Machine
  21. Chapter 19. Process Philosophy and Monadological Metaphysics
  22. Chapter 20. Was Leibniz Ennobled?
  23. Chapter 21. Leibniz Disillusioned: Parting Ways from J. D. Crafft
  24. Postscript
  25. Name Index