What was Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's philosophy?
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a leading 17th-century rationalist and idealist philosopher whose work assimilated elements of the scholastic tradition. He is most noted for his optimism, concluding that our world is the best possible world that God could have created. He also conceptualized the universe as being composed of infinite basic substances called monads.
What we know
- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a leading representative of 17th-century rationalism and idealism. [2]
- Leibniz's philosophy incorporates optimism, concluding that our universe is the best possible world that God could have created. [2]
- Leibniz posited that there are infinite monads, serving as the basic forces, elementary particles, or simplest units that make up the universe. [4]
- Leibniz's philosophical method assumed that substantive knowledge of reality can be achieved by reasoning from first principles or prior definitions. [2]
Where to go next
- compared withWho were the other major early modern rationalists?
- what followedHow did Voltaire satirize Leibniz's optimism?
- how it workedWhat are monads in early modern philosophy?
- the bigger pictureWhat were Leibniz's main contributions to mathematics?
- how we knowHow does Leibniz's work influence contemporary analytic philosophy?
- an unexpected connectionHow did a philosopher's view on the best of all possible worlds inspire a satirical masterpiece?Leibniz's philosophical optimism regarding the creation of the world directly provoked Voltaire to write his famous satirical novella Candide.
Sources
- [1]Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (Wikidata Q9047) · CC0 1.0
- [2]Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz · CC BY-SA 4.0
- [3]Leibniz Prize · CC BY-SA 4.0
- [4]Monad (philosophy) · CC BY-SA 4.0
- [5]Outline of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz · CC BY-SA 4.0