Philosophical Essays
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists
A selection of Leibniz's philosophical writings from the mid 1680s to his death in 1716, as gathered in the Ariew and Garber anthology used by St. John's College. Leibniz never wrote a single systematic book, and his philosophy has to be reconstructed from short essays, letters and summaries produced across three decades. The collection includes the Discourse on Metaphysics, the correspondence with Arnauld, papers on the nature of body and force, essays on freedom and contingency, the Principles of Nature and Grace, and the Monadology.
We recommendPhilosophical Essays, translated by Roger Ariew and Daniel GarberHackett, 1989The anthology most programs mean by this title; the Discourse, the correspondence with Arnauld, the Monadology and the key papers on force and freedom.
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- Written
- 1686-1716
- Form
- Treatise
- Language
- French
- Length
- Medium · 370 pp120 to 300 pages
- Difficulty
- Difficult4 of 5 for a first-year reader
Roger Ariew and Daniel Garber translation
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Why it's on the list
Leibniz never wrote a single systematic book laying out his complete philosophy, and this anthology's value lies in demonstrating that his philosophy can nonetheless be reconstructed coherently from the short essays, letters and summaries he produced across three decades. The Discourse on Metaphysics and the correspondence with Arnauld work through his central concept of substance, developing toward the monad, a genuinely original metaphysical unit that is simple, indivisible and windowless, containing no parts through which anything could enter or leave yet still representing the entire universe from its own unique perspective. His principle of sufficient reason and his doctrine of pre-established harmony, explaining how independent windowless monads could appear to interact through coordination built into creation from the start rather than actual causal influence, address the same problem from complementary angles. His papers on freedom and contingency wrestle with how genuine freedom remains possible within a universe God has already selected as the best of all possible worlds.
Key themes
- Nature and the cosmos
- The Discourse on Metaphysics and the correspondence with Arnauld develop toward the monad, a genuinely original metaphysical unit that is simple, indivisible and windowless, containing no parts through which anything could enter or leave yet somehow representing the entire universe from its own unique perspective.
- God and faith
- Leibniz's doctrine of pre-established harmony explains how genuinely independent windowless monads could nonetheless appear to interact through coordination built into creation from its very beginning by God, rather than through any actual direct causal influence between separate substances.
- Fate and freedom
- Leibniz's papers on freedom and contingency wrestle directly with a tension his own system makes acute, how genuine freedom and real contingency remain possible within a universe God has already selected as the best of all possible worlds according to the principle of sufficient reason.
- Science and method
- Leibniz's principle of sufficient reason, that nothing occurs without a reason why it is so and not otherwise, functions as a foundational methodological commitment shaping his entire philosophical system, from metaphysics through his papers specifically addressing force and the nature of body.
Which translation to read
Our pick
Philosophical Essays, translated by Roger Ariew and Daniel Garber
Hackett, 1989
The anthology most programs mean by this title; the Discourse, the correspondence with Arnauld, the Monadology and the key papers on force and freedom.
Amazon: the Roger Ariew and Daniel Garber translation, opens in a new tabBookshop.org: the Roger Ariew and Daniel Garber translation, opens in a new tab
Overview
About three hundred and seventy pages, a selection of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’s philosophical writings from the mid-1680s to his death in 1716, gathered in the Ariew and Garber anthology used by St. John’s College. Leibniz never wrote a single systematic book laying out his complete philosophy, so this collection’s actual value lies in demonstrating that his philosophy can nonetheless be reconstructed coherently from the short essays, letters and summaries he did produce across three decades.
The collection includes the Discourse on Metaphysics, the correspondence with Arnauld, papers on the nature of body and force, essays on freedom and contingency, the Principles of Nature and Grace, and the Monadology. Together they trace Leibniz’s development from his early work on substance toward his mature theory of monads and the doctrine of pre-established harmony.
What happens
The Discourse on Metaphysics. The collection opens with the Discourse on Metaphysics, addressed initially to Arnauld, working through Leibniz’s central concept of substance and establishing the philosophical groundwork his later, more mature theory of monads would subsequently build upon and extend.
The correspondence with Arnauld. Leibniz’s subsequent correspondence with Arnauld develops and refines the Discourse’s initial claims through sustained direct philosophical exchange, testing his emerging positions against a genuinely sophisticated contemporary interlocutor’s specific objections.
Papers on the nature of body and force. The collection includes Leibniz’s papers on the nature of body and force, addressing questions in natural philosophy that connect his metaphysical commitments directly to contemporary debates about physical substance and causation.
The Monadology and pre-established harmony. The collection’s later selections present Leibniz’s mature theory of monads, simple, indivisible, windowless substances that nonetheless represent the entire universe from their own unique perspective, alongside the doctrine of pre-established harmony explaining their apparent interaction.
Essays on freedom and contingency. Leibniz’s essays on freedom and contingency address directly how genuine freedom and real contingency remain possible within a universe God has already selected as the best of all possible worlds, a tension his own systematic commitments make genuinely difficult to fully resolve.
The Principles of Nature and Grace. The collection includes the Principles of Nature and Grace, a later summary work that draws together Leibniz’s mature metaphysical, theological and cosmological commitments into a relatively compressed, accessible overview of his broader system.
How to read it
Read this collection as a genuine reconstruction project rather than a unified treatise; since Leibniz never wrote a single systematic book, tracing his philosophy’s development across these scattered essays and letters requires actively connecting claims made in different texts written at different points across three decades.
Pay close attention to how the Discourse on Metaphysics and the correspondence with Arnauld establish foundational commitments about substance that the later Monadology and Principles of Nature and Grace subsequently develop into Leibniz’s fully mature theory; reading the collection roughly chronologically reveals this genuine intellectual development.
Notice how the concept of the monad, simple, indivisible and windowless yet somehow representing the entire universe, requires the doctrine of pre-established harmony to explain how monads can appear to interact despite their fundamental isolation from one another; these two ideas function as a genuinely integrated solution to a single underlying problem.
Consider the essays on freedom and contingency as addressing a tension the rest of Leibniz’s system actively creates rather than a separate, unrelated concern; if God has already selected the best of all possible worlds according to sufficient reason, genuine freedom and contingency become philosophically difficult to preserve, a difficulty these specific essays confront directly.
Read this collection alongside Spinoza’s Ethics to compare two major rationalist philosophers, working in roughly the same period, who each constructed comprehensive metaphysical systems addressing substance, God and freedom, though arriving at strikingly different conclusions about the fundamental nature of reality.
Questions it raises
- Does reconstructing Leibniz’s philosophy from scattered essays and letters, rather than encountering it in a single systematic treatise, change how persuasive or coherent his overall system actually appears? Does this fragmented presentation reveal genuine tensions a single unified book might have concealed or resolved more cleanly?
- How successfully does the doctrine of pre-established harmony solve the problem of interaction between windowless monads? Does explaining apparent interaction through coordination built into creation from the beginning provide a genuinely satisfying answer, or does it simply relocate the underlying philosophical difficulty?
- What does Leibniz’s struggle in his essays on freedom and contingency suggest about whether his broader system can actually accommodate genuine human freedom? Does the principle of sufficient reason, combined with the doctrine of the best possible world, leave meaningful room for contingency, or does it tend toward a more deterministic outcome despite Leibniz’s own stated intentions?
- How does the concept of the monad, a simple, indivisible unit representing the entire universe from its own unique perspective, compare to more familiar accounts of individual substance or personal identity? Does this genuinely original metaphysical concept offer insights applicable beyond Leibniz’s own specific system?
- Given that this collection represents editorial reconstruction rather than Leibniz’s own intended organization, how much should the specific selection and arrangement chosen by Ariew and Garber shape your understanding of Leibniz’s actual philosophical priorities and development?
- What does Leibniz’s engagement with contemporary natural philosophy, particularly in his papers on body and force, suggest about the relationship between his abstract metaphysical system and the actual physical science of his period? Does his philosophy emerge from or run parallel to his contemporary scientific commitments?
Highlights
The Discourse on Metaphysics, addressed initially to Arnauld and developed further through their subsequent correspondence, works through Leibniz's central concept of substance, establishing the philosophical groundwork that his mature theory of monads would later build upon and extend.
Paraphrase of the collection's opening major work and its developing correspondence, establishing Leibniz's foundational concept of substance.
Leibniz describes the monad as simple, indivisible and windowless, containing no parts through which anything could genuinely enter or leave, yet argues that each monad nonetheless represents the entire universe from its own unique perspective, a striking combination of total isolation and total representation.
Paraphrase of Leibniz's central and most original metaphysical concept, the monad, central to his mature philosophical system.
Leibniz's doctrine of pre-established harmony explains how genuinely independent, windowless monads could nonetheless appear to interact and influence one another, arguing this apparent interaction results from a coordination built into creation from its very beginning by God rather than from any actual causal exchange between separate substances.
Paraphrase of Leibniz's solution to the problem of apparent interaction between fundamentally isolated monads.
Leibniz's papers on freedom and contingency address directly how genuine freedom and real contingency remain possible within a universe God has already selected as the best of all possible worlds according to the principle of sufficient reason, a tension his own systematic commitments make genuinely difficult to resolve.
Paraphrase of Leibniz's attempt to reconcile freedom and contingency with his broader deterministic-seeming metaphysical commitments.
