Leibniz and the Rational Order of Nature

New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press (1995)
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Abstract

This is the most up-to-date and comprehensive interpretation of the philosophy of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Amongst its other virtues, it makes considerable use of unpublished manuscript sources. The book seeks to demonstrate the systematic unity of Leibniz's thought, in which theodicy, ethics, metaphysics and natural philosophy cohere. The key, underlying idea of the system is the conception of nature as an order designed by God to maximise the opportunities for the exercise of reason. From this idea emerges the view that this world is the best of all possible worlds, and an ethical ideal in which the well-being of human beings is promoted through the gradual extension of intellectual enlightenment.

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Donald Rutherford
University of California, San Diego

Citations of this work

Nietzsche on truth, illusion, and redemption.R. Lanier Anderson - 2005 - European Journal of Philosophy 13 (2):185–225.
The Harmony of Spinoza and Leibniz.Samuel Newlands - 2010 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 81 (1):64-104.
Du Châtelet on Freedom, Self-Motion, and Moral Necessity.Julia Jorati - 2019 - Journal of the History of Philosophy 57 (2):255-280.
V—Time and Subtle Pictures in the History of Philosophy.Emily Thomas - 2020 - Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 120 (2):97-121.

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