Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646 - 1716)

So I want to look at something new,
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646 - 1716)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gottfried_Wilhelm_Leibniz

and his idea of the Monad. What does it entail, what does he mean by it, and where from did it come?


Main interests
Mathematics, physics, geology, medicine, biology, embryology, epidemiology, veterinary medicine, paleontology, psychology, engineering, linguistics, philology, sociology, metaphysics, ethics, economics, diplomacy, history, politics, music theory, poetry, logic, theodicy, universal language, universal science

Notable Ideas:
Calculus
Monads
Best of all possible worlds
Pre-established harmony
Identity of indiscernibles
Matrix (mathematics)
Leibniz integral rule
Principle of sufficient reason
Notation for differentiation
Product rule
Vis viva
Boolean algebra
Salva veritate
Stepped reckoner
Symbolic logic
Semiotics
Analysis situs
Law of Continuity
Transcendental law of homogeneity
Ars combinatoria
Calculus ratiocinator
Leibniz's notation
Characteristica universalis
Problem of why there is anything at all
Pluralistic idealism
Metaphysical dynamism
Relationism
Apperception
A priori/a posteriori distinction

Influences:

Scholasticism, Suárez, Descartes, Hobbes, Malebranche, Spinoza, Bossuet, Pascal, Confucius

influenced:

Berkeley, Platner, Voltaire, Hume, Kant, Russell, Wiener, Gödel, Riemann, Gauss, Lagrange, Euler, Heidegger, Peirce, Benoit Mandelbrot, Wundt, Frege, Rescher


Monads:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gottfried_Wilhelm_Leibniz#Monads

exposited in Monadologie

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monadology

The Monadology, online
home.datacomm.ch/kerguelen/monadology/

like about 8 pages
home.datacomm.ch/kerguelen/monadology/monadology.html

Here, 13 page pdf
www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/leibniz1714b.pdf

So what was Leibniz into?

"
The general view of scholars is that the Kabbalah had no appreciable influence on the philosophy of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. But on the basis of new evidence, Professor Coudert argues that this conclusion is mistaken. Leibniz was neither the foolish optimist Voltaire made him out to be in Candide nor the supreme rationalist described by so many subsequent scholars. He was a radical gnostic, whose philosophy was profoundly influenced by the Lurianic Kabbalah. Once this somewhat startling fact is understood, key areas of his philosophy, such as his concept of monads, defense of free will, and theodicy, can be seen in entirely new ways, which solve many of the problems that have perplexed scholars. This book is for all levels of readers, from those with a general interest in intellectual history to specialists in philosophy, the history of science, theology, and Jewish studies.
"

Just as I had suspected, like Baruch Spinoza before him.

226 pages, Coudert is at UC Davis and has written a lot of interesting books.
www.amazon.com/Kabbalah-Archives-internationales-dhistoire-International/dp/0792331141/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1540512450&sr=8-5&keywords=Allison+Coudert

www.amazon.com/Kabbalah-Archives-internationales-dhistoire-International/dp/0792331141/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1540512450&sr=8-5&keywords=Allison+Coudert#reader_0792331141

Yep, chapter 4, 21 pages, "Kabbalah and Monads"

^^^^^ Well not really available

But available:

Alchemy, the philosopher's stone / Allison Coudert. (1980)

And published just after her Liebniz book, which also tied Liebniz to van Helmont
The impact of the Kabbalah in the seventeenth century : the life and thought of Francis Mercury van Helmont (1614-1698) / by Allison P. Coudert (1998)

Religion, magic, and science in early modern Europe and America / Allison P. Coudert (2011)

SJG

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