New Essays Concerning Human Understanding
by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz · Nouveaux essais sur l'entendement humain
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1704 (published 1765)
- Form
- Treatise
- Language
- French
- Length
- Long · 500 pp300 to 700 pages
- Difficulty
- Difficult4 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendNew Essays on Human Understanding, translated by Peter Remnant and Jonathan BennettCambridge University Press, 1996The standard complete English translation, in the Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy series.
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Leibniz's chapter-by-chapter reply to Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding, written as a dialogue between Philalethes, who speaks for Locke, and Theophilus, who speaks for Leibniz. Against the mind as a blank slate, Leibniz argues for innate ideas and truths that experience only awakens, like veins in a block of marble. He discusses unconscious petites perceptions, personal identity, language, and the limits of knowledge. Locke died in 1704 and Leibniz withheld the book; it appeared in 1765.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns New Essays Concerning Human Understanding are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.
