Leading idea of Leibniz about the Universe as a harmonious system

GOTTFRIED W. LEIBNIZ

(1646-

THE UNIVERSE HARMONY

In 1676 he discovered the “Infinitesimal Calculus”

“The idea of the Universe as a harmonious system in which there is at the same time unity and multiplicity, coordination and differentiation of parts, seems to have become a leading idea, of Leibniz”

HIS METHOD

“Their truth is founded not in the essence (of things) but in their existence; and they are true as though by chance”.

”He thought that the deductive method could be used to develop systems of true propositions in other spheres than logic and mathematics”…SYMBOLIC LOGIC

He dreamed of a Universal Science using Logic and Mathematics.

The History of Philosophy was for him a perennial philosophy.

A LEIBNIZ SENTENCE

“MUST SCHOOLS OF PHILOSOPHY,..

ARE RIGHT IN THE GREATER PART

WHAT THEY AFFIRM, BUT WRONG

IN THE GREATER PART OF WHAT

THEY DENY”

SOME PHILOSOPHERS SAID

Bertrand Russell:

“…his metaphysical philosophy was based on his logical studies. The doctrine of monads, for instance, was closely connected with the subject-predicate analysis of propositions”

Jean Baruzi:

“..Leibniz was primarily a religious mind-minded thinker, animated above all by zeal for the glory of God”

Kuno Fisher:

“He was the chief embodiment of the spirit of the elightenment”, and,

Guido de Ruggiero:

“Leibniz was essentially the precursor of Kant”

TRUTHS OF REASON AND TRUTHS OF FACT

1.- TRUTHS OF REASON

“Are necessarily true, in their truth rest on the principle of contradiction. One cannot deny a truth of reason without being involved in contradiction”.

2.- TRUTHS OF FACT

“Are not necessarily propositions…We know its truth “a posteriori”, not “a priori”.

“TRUTHS OF REASON ARE NECESSARY AND THEIR OPPOSITE IS IMPOSSIBLE; TRUTHS OF FACTS ARE CONTINGENT AND THEIR OPPOSITE IS POSSIBLE”.

“TRUTHS OF FACT, THEN, REST ON THE PRINCIPLE OF SUFFICIENT REASON. BUT THEY DO NOT REST ON THE PRINCIPLE OF CONTRADICTION, SINCE THEIR TRUTH IS NOT NECESSARY AND THEIR OPPOSITES ARE CONCEIVABLE”

THE PRINCIPLE OF “SUFFICIENT REASON”

“NOTHING HAPPENS WITHOUT A REASON WHY IT SHOULD BE SO RATHER THAN OTHERWISE”

THE PRINCIPLE OF PERFECTION

“GOD CHOSE THE WORLD WHICH HAS THE GREATEST MAXIMUM OF PERFECTION.

FURTHER, GOD HAS CREATED MAN IN SUCH A WAY THAT HE CHOOSES WHAT SEEMS TO HIM TO BE THE BEST”

“The true cause why certain things exist rather than others is to be derived from the free decrees of the divine will, the first of which is to will to do all things in the best possible way”

THE BEST POSSIBLE WORLD

“What this sufficient reason is, is explained by the principle of perfection, which says that god always and certainty, though freely, chooses the objectively best and that man certainly, though freely, chooses what appears to him to be the best”

THE MONADS OR SIMPLE SUBSTANCES

Leibniz connected the psychological origin of the idea of substance with self-consciousness”

“THE EXISTENCE OF THE SPIRIT IS MORE CERTAIN THAN THAT OF SENSIBLE KNOWLEDGE”

Monads: “there must be simple substances since there are compound substances, for the compound is only a collection or “aggregatum” of simple substances”

“THEY ARE TRUE ATOMS OF NATURE…THE ELEMENTS OF THINGS”

CHARACTERISTICS OF MONADS

1.- The monad, being without parts, does not possess extension, figure or divisibility;

2.- Monad cannot come into existence in any other way than by creation;

3.- they are qualitatively distinguishable from one and another;

4.- They differ in degree of perception and apetition which each possess;

5.- Each monad develops according to its own inner constitution and lay;

6.- Each monad mirrors the universe in its own way;

7.- There is resemblance between monads and atoms of the philosophers; but the atoms of Epicure possessed “shape”;

8.- They are “metaphysical points”, not mathematical points (!), because they are indivisible.

9.- “MONADS” is a Greek word which signifies UNITY or that which is ONE.

10.- Each monad is the principle and source of its activities;

11.- The monads are: the First Force or Energy.

12.- All the monads are “dynamics” and without “holes”

13.- Aristotle calls them “First Entelechies”;

14.- Leibniz calls them: “Primitive Forces which comprises in themselves not only the act or complement of possibility but also an “ORIGINAL ACTIVITY”;

15.- Reality just consists ultimately of monads, each of which in an unextended metaphysical point;

16.- They are called them by Leibniz, “Prime Matter”;

17.- The monads are “windowless”;

18.- The universe is an ordered system in which each monad has its particular function;

19.- The monads are so related to one and another in the pre-stablished harmony that each reflects the whole infinite system in a particular way;

20.- Each monad reflects in itself the whole universe from its own finite point of view;

21.- All monads have perception and appetite…capacity to change their environment.

Philosophy of the Human Person

“Philosophy is essentially a disinterested activity, directed towards truth, loved for its own sake, not a utilitarian activity (for the sake of power over things.)” Jacques Maritain

The Human Phenomenon of Questioning

A. What is experience?

All inquiry begins with experience

Every inquiry can be said to go beyond experience or transcend it.

All inquiry is a conscious effort to explain and clarify the nature of an experience, to seek out its source or origin, and to uncover its hidden implications.

Human experience is known by three distinct, fundamental characteristics

Highly diversified

Fundamentally social by nature

Able to grow and develop

Highly diversified

We “see” things, we “hear” things and “touch” them, we “taste” and “smell” them.

We can “imagine” things; we can “experience” various emotions; we can “understand” things; etc.

2. Social by Nature

“What this characteristic of experience emphasizes is simply the fact that our experience always means an “other”, that is something beyond ourselves.”

“The experience itself is never found to be in a state of total isolation. Rather a non-self, an other is always found to be present somehow in and during the experience.”

We find that our experiences are highly restricted by circumstances and by our environment.

The “other” is that which is experienced.

Also, we note that human experience is characterized by an increment or growth dimension.

No single experience is found to be isolable from all other experiences.

“This phenomenon indicates the mutual interrelatedness of all individual experiential acts”

“Experience itself has as its goal the development of the individual person to whom that experience belongs.”

B. The Questioning

Asking questions is certainly a part of the human condition.

What is a question?

What are we doing when we ask a question?

What are the necessary conditions to ask a question?

What does the act of questioning in general have to tell us about the nature of being human?

“To question is a unique human phenomenon and, as such, can reveal much to us regarding the meaning of being human.”

What d you think about this?

“…with the increase of experiences, we seem to question more.”

The Anatomy of the Question

Asking a question is closely, even inseparably, related to the act of experiencing itself.

Questions can be seen as natural and an inevitable outflow from experience.

We never question unless we have first of all experienced something. The question is always a search into the depths of the experience.

The question is a search for the causes underlying the experience.

What is it that I am experiencing?

What is the source of this experience?

What is the meaning of value of this experience?

These are philosophical questions

Philosophical questioning originates in a kind of wonder.

Our wonder has aroused our curiosity, and we start looking for the cause of our wonder.

What is it that we do not yet understand?

Confronted with an experience we do not yet fully understand, we inquire further about it.

When we ask questions concerning about experience, it is not the fact of the experience itself which we are questioning but rather “the meaning” of that experience. We are looking for an explanation as to why such an experience occurred.

The question can be seen to emerge out of the experience and to extend beyond it.

The question always reveals to us not only that something is “known” but that something is “unknown” as well. It always points to the possibility of further knowledge; thus, indicating there is more to be known than what is already known.

A question always will involve an admission of ignorance on part of the questioner…an inner drive within the questioner to reject ignorance throughout the acquisition of further knowledge.

“One questions simply in order to know what one does not know”

In order to ask a question, we must know that we do not know; but such knowledge plainly

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