Leibniz, Monadologie

[1]

[2]

every simple substance (monad) is different from every other; every simple substance changes; therefore every monad "must include a multiplicity within a unity (or something simple). For since every natural change happens gradually, something changes and something remains. Consequently, a simple substance must contain a multiplicity of affections and relations, even though it does not contain any parts." (13)

transitory state of a monad, plurality of its properties: its perception

internal principle that brings about change: appetition [desire, appetite]

"We ourselves experience a multiplicity in a simple substance, when we find that the least thought of which we are conscious includes a variegation within its object. So anyone who accepts that the soul is a simple substance must accept this multiplicity within the monad." (16)

perceptions of monads cannot be explained through mechanistic causation (example of blowing something up, walking into it the way one walks into a mill, seeing all its parts in operation -- none of the machinery explains the being's perception) (17)

(monads are not called "souls" because souls have memory, 19)

human reasoning grounded on two principles:

• principle of contradiction: if one thing contradicts another, one of them must be false (31)
• principle of sufficient reason: must have good reasons for believing something (32)

two sorts of truth (33):

• those of reasoning: necessary, opposite is impossible
• those of fact: contingent, opposite is possible

primary principles for which there is no argument, cannot be broken down; like assertions of identity

proof for God's existence, 45

God has power, knowledge and will (48)

activity attributed to monads with distinct perceptions, passivity to those with confused perceptions (49)

monads are separate; so how do they "communicate" to construct things in the world?

• God orders them, builds these instructions into the monads (51)

"Now this interconnectedness, or this accommodation of all created things to each, and of each to all the rest, means that each simple substance has relations to all the others, which it expresses. Consequently, it is a permanent living mirror of the universe." (56)