Leibniz and the Natural World: Activity, Passivity and Corporeal Substances in Leibniz's Philosophy

Leibniz and the Natural World: Activity, Passivity and Corporeal Substances in Leibniz's Philosophy
(The New Synthese Historical Library)
by Pauline Phemister

# Hardcover: 293 pages
# Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (August 11, 2005)


"[Leibniz and the Natural World] lives up admirably to its ambitious aims. [...] in arguing for her main thesis, Phemister also provides an original and fascinating approach to two formidable challenges in Leibniz's scholarship. [...] There is much more to be found in this rich book, which any serious student of Leibniz's metaphysics should study."

Ohad Nachtomy, Bar-Ilan University, Israel, in British Journal for the History of Philosophy 16:1, 2008


Product Description
In the present book, Pauline Phemister argues against traditional Anglo-American interpretations of Leibniz as an idealist who conceives ultimate reality as a plurality of mind-like immaterial beings and for whom physical bodies are ultimately unreal and our perceptions of them illusory. Re-reading the texts without the prior assumption of idealism allows the more material aspects of Leibniz's metaphysics to emerge. Leibniz is found to advance a synthesis of idealism and materialism. His ontology posits indivisible, living, animal-like corporeal substances as the real metaphysical constituents of the universe; his epistemology combines sense-experience and reason; and his ethics fuses confused perceptions and insensible appetites with distinct perceptions and rational choice. In the light of his sustained commitment to the reality of bodies, Phemister re-examines his dynamics, the doctrine of pre-established harmony and his views on freedom. The image of Leibniz as a rationalist philosopher who values activity and reason over passivity and sense-experience is replaced by the one of a philosopher who recognises that, in the created world, there can only be activity if there is also passivity; minds, souls and forms if there is also matter; good if there is evil; perfection if there is imperfection.

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