The Young Leibniz and his Philosophy (1646-76) (International Archives of the History of Ideas Archives internationales d'histoire des idees)

ARCHIVES INTERNATIONALES D'HISTOIRE DES IDEES INTERNATIONAL ARCHIVES OF THE HISTORY OF IDEAS

166

THE YOUNG LEIBNIZ AND HIS PHILOSOPHY (1646-76) edited by STUART BROWN

Founding Directors: P. Dibont (Paris) and R.H, Popkin (Washington University, St. Louis & UCLA) Director: Sarah Hutton (The University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom) Assistant-Directors: J.E. Force (Lexington); J.C. Laursen (Riverside) Editorial Board: J.F Battail (Paris); F Duchesneau (Montreal); A. Gabbey (New York); T. Gregory (Rome); J.D. North (Groningen); MJ. Petry (Rotterdam); J. Popkin (Lexington); G.A.J. Rogers (Keele); Th. Verbeek (Utrecht) Advisory Editorial Board: J. Aubin (Paris); B. Copenhaver (Los Angeles); A. Crombie (Oxford); H. Gadamer (Heidelberg); H. Gouhier (Paris); K. Hanada (Hokkaido University); W. Kirsop (Melbourne); E. Labrousse (Paris); A. Lossky (Los Angeles); J. Malarczyk (Lublin); J. Orcibal (Paris); W. Rod (Miinchen); G. Rousseau (Los Angeles); H. Rowen (Rutgers University, N.J.); J.P. Schobinger (Zurich); J. Tans (Groningen)

THE YOUNG LEIBNIZ AND HIS PHILOSOPHY (1646-76) edited by

STUART BROWN The Open University, U.K.

KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS DORDRECHT / BOSTON / LONDON

A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN 0-7923-5997-6

Published by Kluwer Academic Publishers, P.O. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, The Netherlands. Sold and distributed in North, Central and South America by Kluwer Academic Publishers, 101 Philip Drive, Norwell, MA 02061, U.S.A. In all other countries, sold and distributed by Kluwer Academic Publishers, P.O. Box 322, 3300 AH Dordrecht, The Netherlands.

Printed on acid-free paper

All Rights Reserved © 1999 Kluwer Academic Publishers No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner Printed in the Netherlands.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

vii

A chronology of the young Leibniz (1646-76)

ix

Abbreviations

xi

Leibniz's formative years (1646-76): an overview by Stuart Brown

1

The young Leibniz and his teachers by Christia Mercer

19

Immeatio and emperichoresis. The theological roots of harmony in Bisterfeld and Leibniz by Maria Rosa Antognazza

41

Deus sive harmonia universalis est ultima ratio rerum: the conception of God in Leibniz's early philosophy by Konrad Moll

65

Transubstantiation, physics and philosophy at the time of the Catholic Demonstrations by Ursula Goldenbaum

79

The young Leibniz and the problem of historical truth by Daniel Cook

103

Mathematics and nature in Leibniz's early philosophy by Philip Beeley

123

Leibniz and ethics: the years 1669-72 by Francesco Piro

147

Leibniz and millenarianism by Howard Hotson

169

v

VI

Sufficient reason and human freedom in the Confessio Philosophi by G. H. R. Parkinson

199

Atoms, minds and vortices in De Summa Rerum: Leibniz vis-a-vis Hobbes and Spinoza by Catherine Wilson

223

Leibniz, Spinoza, and Tschirnhaus: multiple worlds, possible worlds by Mark A. Kulstad

245

The proto-monadology of the De Summa Rerum by Stuart Brown

263

A bibliography of the Young Leibniz and his background

289

Index

309

Acknowledgements

This volume had its beginnings in a conference on The Young Leibniz and his Philosophy held in 1996 as part of the celebrations of the 350th anniversary of Leibniz's birth. I am grateful to Philip Beeley, Christia Mercer and Harry Parkinson for encouraging me to organise this conference and to the staff of in Woburn College in Bedfordshire for providing us with an ideal environment for our discussions. The Conference was sponsored by the British Society for the History of Philosophy and supported by grants from the B.S.H.P, the Mind Association and the Open University Arts Faculty Research Committee, which is gratefully acknowledged. The task of preparing the collection for publication was greatly facilitated by the support of colleagues in the Faculty of Arts at the Open University. I am especially grateful to two Secretaries of the Department of Philosophy, Wendy Clarke and Miriam Selwyn, for their willing advice and support. I am also grateful to the Faculty IT Co-Ordinator, Angela Redgewell, for technical assistance, and to Sophie Reid, who helped me in the curiously difficult task of adding accents over Greek characters. Grateful acknowledgement is made for permission to quote from the following works: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Philosophical Papers and Letters. Translated by Leroy E. Loemker. Second Edition. Copyright © 1969 by D. Reidel, Dordrecht. Reproduced here by kind permission of Kluwer Academic Publishers. Also from G. W.- Leibniz. De Summa Rerum. Metaphysical Papers, 1675-1676. Translated by G. H. R. Parkinson. Copyright © Yale University Press. Reproduced here by kind permission of Yale University Press and G. H. R. Parkinson.

vn

A CHRONOLOGY OF THE YOUNG LEIBNIZ (1646-76) 1646

Born in Leipzig, 1 July (NS).

1653

Enters Nicolai School in Leipzig.

1661

Enters University of Leipzig.

1663

Defends and publishes Metaphysical disputation on the principle of individuation. Becomes Bachelor of Philosophy. Spends summer semester at the University of Jena.

1664 Graduates Master of Philosophy from Leipzig with a dissertation on philosophy of law. 1665

Studies law, receiving bachelor's degree in law.

1666

Works on Habilitationsschrift, resulting in the Dissertation on the art of combinations. Refused doctor's degree by Leipzig and moves to the University of Altdorf. Publishes dissertation on Difficult cases in law.

1667 Receives doctorate in law from Altdorf. Meets Baron Johann Christian von Boineburg. Moves to Frankfurt and publishes his New method for learning and teaching jurisprudence. 1668

Moves to Mainz, where he is appointed to the High Court of Appeal by the Elector of Mainz. Catalogues Boineburg's library and writes anonymous tract supporting the Elector's candidate to be elected king of Poland

1669

Engaged in ecclesiastical diplomacy and in writing about theology and philosophy of religion, including the drafts known as The Catholic Demonstrations Confession of nature against atheists published anonymously

1670

Produces for Boineburg an edition of Nizolius's Anti-Barbarus Works on physics and studies Hobbes

1671

Publishes New physical hypothesis Completes his Justa dissertatio and his Grundriss ix

1672

Goes to Paris on a diplomatic mission to keep peace in Europe Meets Antoine Arnauld and Christiaan Huygens Death of Boineburg

1673

Travels to London in hope of setting up peace conference Meets Henry Oldenburg and demonstrates a model of his calculating machine Elected Fellow of the Royal Society in London Death of Elector of Mainz Returns to Paris and begins intensive study of higher mathematics Writes Confessio philosophi

1674

Working on mathematical problems and on completing his calculating machine

1675

Makes breakthrough with infinitesimal calculus Meets Nicolas Malebranche and Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus Begins writings that form the De summa rerum

1676

Decides to accept employment with Johann Friedrich, Duke of Hanover Revisits London and shows his calculating machine to Oldenburg Visits Antoni van Leeuwenhoek in Delft and Benedict Spinoza at the Hague Arrives and takes up posts in Hanover

Abbreviations

References to works are given in an abridged form, without publication details, where these details are given in the bibliography In addition the following abbreviations have been used: (a) Editions of Leibniz's worksA

German Academy of Sciences (auspices). G. W. Leibniz: Sdmtliche Schriften und Briefe. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1923-. (Referred to by series and volume number.)

AG

Ariew, R., and Garber, D. (trans. & ed.). G. W. Leibniz: Philosophical Essays. Indianapolis, Hackett, 1989.

C

Couturat, L. (ed.). Opuscules et fragments inedits de Leibniz* Paris: Alcan, 1903; repr. Hildesheim: Olms, 1961.

D

Dutens, L. L. (ed.). G G Leibnitii... Opera Omnia. (6 vols.) Geneva, 1768.

FC

Foucher de Careil, A. (ed.). Nouvelles lettres et opuscules inedits de Leibniz ... Paris: Durand, 1857; Hildesheim: Olms, 1971.

G

Gerhardt, C. I. (ed.). Die Philosophischen Schriften von Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. (7 vols.) Berlin: Weidmann, 187590; repr. Hildesheim: Olms, 1965.

GM

Gerhardt, C. I. (ed.). Leibnizens Mathematische Schriften. (7 vols.) Berlin: A. Asher/Halle: H. W. Schmidt, 1849-63; repr. Hildesheim: Olms, 1965.

Gr

Grua, G. (ed,). G W. Leibniz: Textes inedits d'apres les manuscrits de la Bibliotheque provinciate d'Hanovre. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1948.

K

Klopp, O. (ed.). Die Werke von Leibniz. (11 vols.) Hanover: Klindworth, 1864-84.

L

Loemker, L. E. (ed. & trans.). G W. Leibniz: Philosophical Papers and Letters. 2nd edition. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1969.

M

Mollat, G. (ed.). Mittheilungen aus Leibnizens ungedruckten Schriften. Leipzig: H. Haessel, 1893

xi

Xll

MB

Martin, R. Niall D. and Brown, S. (eds. & trans.). G. W. Leibniz: Discourse on Metaphysics and Related Writings. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1988.

PDSR Parkinson, G. H. R. (ed. & trans.). G. W. Leibniz: De Summa Rerum: Metaphysical Papers 1675-76. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1992. PW

Parkinson, G. H. R. (ed. & trans.). Writings. London: Dent, 1973.

Leibniz: Philosophical

RB

Remnant, P. and Bennett, J. (trans. & ed.). G. W. Leibniz: New Essays on Human Understanding. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

R

Riley, P. (ed. & trans.). The Political Writings of Leibniz. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972.

Ru

Russell, C. W. (ed. & trans.). System of Theology. London: Burns & Lambert, 1850.

VE

Leibniz-Forschungstelle der Universitat Munster (eds.). G. W. Leibniz: Vorausedition zur Reihe VI (Philosophische Schriften). In der Ausgabe der Akademie der Wissenschaften der Berlin, Munster, 1982-.

W

Wiener, P. (ed.). Leibniz Selections. New York: Charles Scribners, 1951.

b) Other titles BH Bodemann, E. (ed.). Die Leibniz-Handschriften der Koniglichen Offentlichen Bibliothek zu Hannover. Hanover: Hahn, 1895; repr. Hildesheim: Olms, 1966. SL

Studia Leibnitiana. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner.

SL Sond. Studia Leibnitiana, Sonderheft. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner. SL Supp. Studia Leibnitiana, Supplementa. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner.

STUART BROWN

LEIBNIZ'S FORMATIVE YEARS (1646-76): AN OVERVIEW

Education Gottfried Wilhelm was born in Leipzig on 1 July1, 1646, the son of Friedrich Leibniz, a Professor of Moral Philosophy. His father, who had given him every encouragement in the direction of piety and learning, died while Gottfried was still a child. His library was, for a while, locked up, but the child's relations were prevailed upon to allow him access at the age of eight. Leibniz, in an autobiographical fragment, gave this account of what the privilege meant to him: This announcement made me exult greatly, as though I had found a treasure. For I was eager to see the many ancients who had been known to me only by their names, - Cicero and Quintillian and Seneca, Pliny, Heroditus, Xenophon, Plato, ... Augustine, and the numerous Christian fathers, both Greek and Latin. I occupied myself with these as my inclination prompted; and was delighted by their wonderful variety. Thus,

10 days earlier, according to the calendar still in use when Leibniz was young. Leibniz lived through a time when some countries had gone over to the new, Gregorian, calendar but others, including the Protestant states of Germany, had not yet done so. In this volume, however, dates will be given in accordance with the modern calendar.

S. Brown (ed.): The Young Leibniz and his Philosophy (1646-76). 1-18. © 1999 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

2 Stuart Brown before I was quite twelve, I readily understood Latin and had begun to stammer in Greek.2 Leibniz was, not surprisingly, a long way ahead of his contemporaries at school and claims to have read Suarez with as much ease as they would have read fairy tales and romances.3 He was already interested in Scholastic philosophy and immersed in writers such as Fonseca and Zabarella. His mastery of Aristotelian logic was advanced for a schoolboy and he was well read in theology. After completing the trivium at the Nicolai School, Leibniz claims to have encountered the Moderns and, at the age of fifteen, to have taken up the new philosophy.4 But scholars are mostly of the opinion that his adoption of the mechanical philosophy did not happen for another two years.5 He entered Leipzig University in 1661 and was particularly influenced by two of his teachers there - Jakob Thomasius and Johann Adam Scherzer - from whom he learned what Christia Mercer calls a "conciliatory eclecticism".6 In a letter to a correspondent late in life he himself claimed that his facility for harmonising very different points of view was one he acquired while still very young:

Quoted (my translation) from the autobiographical fragment 'Vita Leibnltii a se ipso breviter delineata \ FC 381. 3 FC 383. 4

"After having finished the trivial schools, I fell upon the moderns, and I recall walking in a grove on the outskirts of Leipzig called the Rosental, at the age of fifteen, and deliberating on whether to preserve substantial forms or not. Mechanism finally prevailed and led me to apply myself to mathematics." (L 655: G III 606) Leibniz later wrote to a friend in 1676 that Bacon and Gassendi were the first modern authors he read. He admitted that he still knew Descartes mainly from popular expositions and had "not yet been able to read his writings with all the care I had intended to give them". (L 152: A II i 247) See, for instance, W. Kabitz, Die Philosophic des jungen Leibniz, Heidelberg: Karl Winter's Universitatsbuchhandlung, 1909. See also E.J. Aiton, Leibniz. A Biography, Bristol & Boston: Hilger, 1985, p. 15. See below, p. 20. Mercer discussed both Scherzer (pp. 24-28) and Thomasius (pp. 28-33).

Leibniz's Formative Years (1646-76) 3 I have tried to uncover and unite the truth buried and scattered under the opinions of all the different philosophical sects, and I believe I have added something of my own which takes a few steps forward. The circumstances under which my studies proceeded from my earliest youth have given me some facility in this. I discovered Aristotle as a lad, and even the Scholastics did not repel me; even now I do not regret this. But then Plato and Plotinus also gave me some satisfaction, not to mention other ancient thinkers whom I consulted later ... 7 His early education encouraged him to read widely, to have very broad philosophical sympathies and yet at the same time to develop his own thoughts in an independent way. Leibniz probably exaggerated the extent to which he was self-taught8 and under-acknowledged the importance of particular teachers for his intellectual development. But it is likely too that he was already in the habit of reading very widely as a boy and already disposed to look for what he could agree to. The University provided him with an opportunity to immerse himself in some of the problems of scholastic Aristotelianism.9 This is clear from the dissertation he wrote in 1663, under the supervision of Thomasius, entitled Disputatio metaphysica de Principio Individui. Though this dissertation was a juvenilium, it is noteworthy that its preoccupations were ones that remained central to Leibniz's later

7

L 655: GUI 606. "I was thoroughly self-taught (a\)To8i8ocKTO