This volume contains papers that represent Leibniz’s early thoughts on the problem of evil, centering on a dialogue, the Confessio philosophi, in which he formulates a general account of God’s relation to sin and evil that becomes a fixture in his thinking.
How can God be understood to be the ultimate cause, asks Leibniz, without God being considered as the author of sin, a conclusion incompatible with God’s holiness? 
Leibniz’s attempts to justify the way of God to humans lead him to deep discussion of related topics: the nature of free choice, the problems of necessitarianism and fatalism, the nature of divine justice and holiness. All but one of the writings presented here are available in English for the first time.

Confessio Philosophi: Papers Concerning the Problem of Evil, 1671–1678 (The Yale Leibniz Series)

Politics & Social Sciences

G. W. Leibniz

Philosophy

Yale University Press

One of the 17th century's most important thinkers, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz exercised enormous influence on the philosophy of Herder, Feuerbach, and Hegel as well as on the writings of Schiller and Goethe. Two of Leibniz's most studied and often quoted works appear in this volume: Discourse on Metaphysics and The Monadology. Published in 1686, the Discourse on Metaphysics consists of Leibniz's expansion of a letter to his theologian friend Antoine Arnauld, in which he explains that through our perceptions we express the rest of the universe from our own unique perspectives. The whole world is thus contained in each individual substance as each represents the same universe and "the universe is in a way multiplied as many times as there are substances, and similarly the glory of God is redoubled by as many completely different representations of His work." It is here that Leibniz makes his famous assertion that God, with perfect knowledge and goodness, freely chose to create this, the best of all possible worlds. The Monadology, written in 1714, offers a concise synopsis of Leibniz's philosophy. It establishes the laws of final causes, which underlie God's free choice to create the best possible world — a world that serves as dynamic and perfectly ordered evidence of the wisdom, power, and benevolence of its creator.

Discourse on Metaphysics and The Monadology (Philosophical Classics)

Dover Publications

The manuscripts and correspondence of Leibniz possess a special interest: they are invaluable as aids to the study of their author's part in the invention and development of the infinitesimal calculus. In addition, the main ideas behind Leibniz's philosophical theories lay here, in his mathematical work. This volume consists of two sections. The first part features Leibniz's own accounts of his work, and the second section comprises critical and historical notes and essays. An informative Introduction leads to the "postscript" to Leibniz's 1703 letter to James Bernoulli, his "Historia et Origio Calculi Differentialis," and manuscripts of the period 1673-77. Essays by the distinguished scholar C. I. Gerhardt follow--Leibniz in London and Leibniz and Pascal, along with additional letters and manuscripts by Leibniz.

The Early Mathematical Manuscripts of Leibniz (Dover Books on Mathematics)

Literature & Fiction

Literary

This is an abridgement of the complete translation of the New Essays, first published in 1981, designed for use as a study text. The material extraneous to philosophy - more than a third of the original - and the glossary of notes have been cut and a philosophical introduction and bibliography of work on Leibniz have been provided by the translators. The marginal pagination has been retained for ease of cross-reference to the full edition. The work itself is an acknowledged philosophical classic, in which Leibniz argues point by point with Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding. The result is the single most important confrontation between the philosophical traditions of rationalism and empiricism. It makes an extremely suitable focus for the study of Leibniz's thought and of those two traditions in relation to one another.

New Essays on Human Understanding

Cambridge University Press

Although Leibniz's writing forms an enormous corpus, no single work stands as a canonical expression of his whole philosophy. In addition, the wide range of Leibniz's work--letters, published papers, and fragments on a variety of philosophical, religious, mathematical, and scientific questions over a fifty-year period--heightens the challenge of preparing an edition of his writings in English translation from the French and Latin.

Leibniz: Philosophical Essays (Hackett Classics)

Hackett Publishing Company

For this new edition, Roger Ariew has adapted Samuel Clarke's edition of 1717, modernizing it to reflect contemporary English usage. Ariew's introduction places the correspondence in historical context and discusses the vibrant philosophical climate of the times. Appendices provide those selections from the works of Newton that Clarke frequently refers to in the correspondence. A bibliography is also included.

Leibniz and Clarke: Correspondence

Samuel Clarke

Biographies & Memoirs

Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.

This book is important for understanding the battle of philosophy in modern Europe and the science and philosophy at that time.

New Essays on Human Understanding (A,B) (Chinese Edition)

The Commercial Press

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