Abstract
In January 1680 Leibniz wrote to Philipp as follows: “I esteem Mr. Descartes almost as much as one can esteem any man, and, though there are among his opinions some which seem false to me, and even dangerous, this does not keep me from saying that we owe nearly as much to Galileo and to him in philosophical matters as to the whole of antiquity. At present I recall only one of the ... dangerous propositions.... It is in the Principles of Philosophy, Part III, Article 47, in the following words:
And, after all, it makes very little difference what we assume in this respect, because it must later be changed in accordance to the laws of nature. Hardly anything can be assumed from which the same effects cannot be derived, though perhaps with greater trouble. For, due to these laws, matter takes on, successively, all the forms of which it is capable. Therefore if we considered these forms in order, we could eventually arrive at that one which is our present world, so that in this respect no false hypothesis can lead us into error.
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Hintikka, J. (1972). Leibniz on Plenitude, Relations, and the ‘Reign of Law’. In: Knuuttila, S. (eds) Reforging the Great Chain of Being. Synthese Historical Library, vol 20. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7662-8_7
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