Leibniz: What Kind of Rationalist?

Marcelo Dascal

Springer Science & Business Media, Aug 9, 2008 - Philosophy - 532 pages

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was an outstanding contributor to many fields of human knowledge. The historiography of philosophy has tagged him as a “rationalist”. But what does this exactly mean? Is he a “rationalist” in the same sense in Mathematics and Politics, in Physics and Jurisprudence, in Metaphysics and Theology, in Logic and Linguistics, in Technology and Medicine, in Epistemology and Ethics? What are the most significant features of his “rationalism”, whatever it is?

For the first time an outstanding group of Leibniz researchers, some acknowledged as leading scholars, others in the beginning of a promising career, who specialize in the most significant areas of Leibniz’s contributions to human thought and action, were requested to spell out the nature of his rationalism in each of these areas, with a view to provide a comprehensive picture of what it amounts to, both in its general drive and in its specific features and eventual inner tensions.

The chapters of the book are the result of intense discussion in the course of an international conference focused on the title question of this book, and were selected in view of their contribution to this topic. They are clustered in thematically organized parts. No effort has been made to hide the controversies underlying the different interpretations of Leibniz’s “rationalism” – in each particular domain and as a whole. On the contrary, the editor firmly believes that only through a variety of conflicting interpretive perspectives can the multi-faceted nature of an oeuvre of such a magnitude and variety as Leibniz’s be brought to light and understood as it deserves.

Contents

• Introduction: 1
• A Plea Against Equating Soft and Strong: 15
• Leibnizs TwoPronged Dialectic: 37
• Divine Intelligibility and Human Intelligibility: 73
• Rationalism and Empirical Science: 84
• Leibniz Against the Unreasonable Newtonian Physics: 99
• Some Hermetic Aspects of Leibnizs Mathematical Rationalism: 111
• Mathematics: 125
• The Art of Mathematical Rationality: 141
• Ramus and Leibniz on Analysis 155: 154
• Leibnizs Conception of Natural Explanation: 183
• The Role of Metaphor in Leibnizs Epistemology: 199
• What Is the Foundation of Knowledge? Leibniz and: 213
• What Kind of Legal Rationalism?: 231
• On Two Argumentative Uses of the Notion of Uncertainty in Law: 251
• Contingent Propositions and Leibnizs Analysis of Juridical: 267
• Authenticity or Autonomy? Leibniz and Kant on Practical: 293
• The Place of the Other in Leibnizs Rationalism: 315
• Genesis and Determination of the Will: 328
• Leibniz and Moral Rationality: 343
• Leibnizs Models of Rational Decision: 357
• The Specimen Demonstrationum Politicarum Pro Eligendo: 371
• On Three Basic Rules in Leibnizs: 397
• Convergence or Genealogy? Leibniz and the Spectre of Pagan: 411
• Paroles Entierement Destituees de Sens Pathic Reason in: 423
• The Authority of the Bible and the Authority of Reason in Leibnizs: 441
• A Contribution to His Philosophical Theology: 449
• For a History of Leibnizs Principle of Sufficient Reason First: 463
• The Problem: 479
• Causa Sive Ratio Univocity of Reason and Plurality of Causes: 494
• Index: 511

Bibliographic information

• Title: Leibniz: What Kind of Rationalist?; Volume 13 of Logic, Epistemology, and the Unity of Science
• Editor: Marcelo Dascal
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media, 2008
• ISBN: 1402086687, 9781402086687
• Length: 532 pages
• Subjects: Law / Jurisprudence; Philosophy / Ethics & Moral Philosophy; Philosophy / General; Philosophy / History & Surveys / Modern; Philosophy / Reference; Philosophy / Religious; Religion / Philosophy; Science / History