Abstract
The aim of this essay is to secure as painless and as firm a grasp as possible on the very thorny problem of the status of scientific laws in the Leibnizian system. The thorniness of the problem is immediately evident when we realize that Leibniz maintains that laws of nature are absolutely contingent, hypothetically necessary, and (in some cases at least) a priori deducible.
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Notes
Spinoza, Ethics, Part 1, proposition 33, translated by R.H.M. Elwes, (New York: Dover Publications, 1951).
L, p. 680. (The controversy between Leibniz and Clarke, Clarke’s second reply, second paragraph.)
L, p. 687. (Leibniz’s fourth letter, second paragraph.)
Margaret Wilson, “Leibniz’s Dynamics and Contingency in Nature” in Machamer and Turnbull (eds.) Motion and Time, Space and Matter (Ohio State University Press, 1976).
Ouvres de Descartes, ed. by C. Adam and P. Tannery (Paris: Leopold Cerf, 1897–1910), 6; 43.
In Harry Frankfurt (ed.) Leibniz: A Collection of Critical Essays (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1972) pp. 69–97.
G. v. 286.
C. 522.
Bertrand Russell, A Critical Exposition of the Philosophy of Leibniz (London: Allen & Unwin, 1900: 2nd ed. 1937) p. 67.
C. 9.
G. vii. 303.
C. 376.
See p. 186 of 1903 review of Couturat : “Recent Work on the Philosophy of Leibniz”, Mind xii (1903).
Louis Couturat La Logique de Leibniz d’après des documents inédits (Paris: Alcan, 1901) and “Sur la metaphysique de Leibniz”, Revue de Metaphysique et de Morale, 10 (1902)
C. 9.
G. vii. 303.
Leibniz: Textes inédits, edited by G. Grua (paris, 1948) p. 304.
G. vii. 195 n.
C. 23.
G. vii. 309.
G. ii, 181.
G. ii. 423.
Grua, p. 302.
Wilson, “Leibniz’s Dynamics and Contingency in Nature” in Machamer and Turnbull (eds.) Motion and Time, Space and Matter (Ohio State University Press, 1976), p. 285.
G. vii. 309.
G. 20.
G. ii. 49n. for a discussion of this topic, see G.H.R. Parkinson, Logic and Reality in Leibniz’s Metaphysics (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965).
Assuming, of course, that it does not embody a contradiction.
G. iv. 438.
G. ii. 400. See also G. vi. 123.
L, p. 487. (“On the Radical Origination of Things”).
L, p. 211. (Letter to Malebranche, June 22/July 2, 1679).
L, p. 283. (“On the Elements of Natural Science, part II: An Introduction to the Value and Method of Natural Science”).
G. Buchdahl, Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Science, Blackwell, 1968.
Eduard Bodemann, Die Leibniz-Handschriften der Koniglichen offentlichen Bibliothek zu Hannover, Hildesheim, Georg Olms, 1966, p. 58. Cited in Curley, op. cit.
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© 1985 D. Reidel Publishing Company
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Okruhlik, K. (1985). The Status of Scientific Laws in the Leibnizian System. In: Okruhlik, K., Brown, J.R. (eds) The Natural Philosophy of Leibniz. The University of Western Ontario Series in Philosophy of Science, vol 29. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5490-8_7
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