Leibniz’s World

Abstract

Summarising Isaac Newton’s philosophical views is a relatively simple matter. Although they are scattered throughout his greater and lesser works, letters and treatises, they were crystallised fairly quickly and were always consistent later. Newton was precise and well-ordered not only in his works on physics and mathematics, and his philosophical commentaries were associated with his physics in a fairly natural manner: as soon as one manages to comprehend his interpretative principles it is not difficult to reconstruct the ideas espoused by the pioneer of classical physics. With Leibniz the situation is completely different. Certainly he had no want of genius, but he was occupied with too many matters, not only ones connected with science and philosophy, to concentrate resolutely and systematically on any one subject. He devised calculus as if incidentally; he had so many excellent ideas in physics but never formulated them systematically; he created his metaphysical system while busy with numerous other activities and engaged in several debates.