Overview
- A new picture of Leibniz emerges clearly from this book: a thinker actively working for the solution of acute conflicts and developing the intellectual means for that purpose
- Controversy – as Leibniz teaches us in his Art of Controversies – does not mean fight and quarrel, but rather the willingness to learn from the other, the readiness to discover in what seems to be an implacable opponent, someone who in fact shares with us basic assumptions which can form the ground for a solid cooperation and partnership
- Leibniz’s ‘rationalism’ is not restricted to a concern with expanding and applying a logical and mathematical model of thought and action
- As the texts collected, translated, and commented in this book show, rationality for him must also – if it wishes to be relevant to conflict plagued individual and social life – be able to display enough flexibility, without thereby falling into arbitrariness
Part of the book series: The New Synthese Historical Library (SYNL, volume 60)
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Table of contents (45 chapters)
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Front Matter
Keywords
About this book
Leibniz is known to the wide public and to many scholars mainly as a logician and mathematician, and as the creator of a fascinating but strange metaphysical system. In these, as well as in other fields, his remarkable innovations were achieved by painstaking efforts to establish a fruitful critical dialogue with the leading contemporary thinkers. He was no less important, however, in his practical endeavor to bring opponents to negotiate reasonable solutions to key political and religious conflicts of his time.
Both his theoretical and practical activities were informed by a philosophical mind that sought in all circumstances the most general underlying principles; by a juridical mind that sought to bring order and structure to human interaction, without sacrificing the necessary flexibility; by an argumentative mind that knows that persuading is often more important than proving; by a scientific mind eager to organize past and present knowledge so as not to miss any bit of information capable of pointing the way to new discoveries; by a theologian mind that refuses to admit that religious conflicts between true believers are irresolvable; and by an ethical and political mind whose major concern is to direct all our intellectual work towards improving the well-being of humankind.
Reviews
From the reviews:
“This book is an invaluable contribution to the history of (philosophical) ideas and also a contribution to the pragmatics of discussion and debate, including argumentation (in the vernacular sense) and logic. … should be read by philosophers of language (as well as historians of philosophy) as well as by pragmaticians and more generally by those who are concerned by the standards of public debates.” (Anne Reboul, Linguist List, April 2009)
"[...] an impressive scholarly achievement and an indispensable tool for understanding Leibniz's thinking on form and function of controversies." (Gerd Fritz, University of Gießen, Germany, Journal of Historical Pragmatics 9:1, 2008)
"The Art of Controversies is an outstanding collection of the most important Leibniz texts concerning his life-long obsession: the art of reasoning not merely in mathematics, but also and above all in human conflict. In the vast amount of existing literature on Leibniz, this book is a must-read." (Bernardino Orio de Miguel, Catedrático de Filosofía, 2008)
"This book … in its 45 chapters, newly translated or retranslated Leibnizan texts in which the philosopher pursues his lifelong passion for analyzing and refining the logical structure and practical conduct of intellectual debate. … This volume promises to function as a rich and important resource not only for Leibniz scholars and for scholars of early modern philosophy generally, but also for philosophers … . It should also prove valuable to historians of ideas, theorists of argumentation, logicians, and scholars of rhetoric." (Véronique M. Fóti, The Review of Metaphysics 61:2, 2007)
"[...] is a treasure trove for scholars interested in Leibniz's practical rationality and his practical action in general. [...] All in all, this is a very rich collection of translations of mostly unknown texts which will give food for thought for a longtime to come and will inspire scholars to dig deeper into this most interesting and ignored area of Leibniz's thought." (Markku Roinila, Studia Leibnitiana, Band XXXVIII/XXXIX, Heft 2, 2006/2007)
Editors and Affiliations
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Book Subtitle: The Art of Controversies
Editors: Marcelo Dascal
Series Title: The New Synthese Historical Library
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-5228-6
Publisher: Springer Dordrecht
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, Philosophy and Religion (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2006
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4020-5227-9Published: 14 December 2006
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-4020-8190-3Published: 22 January 2008
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4020-5228-6Published: 16 May 2007
Series ISSN: 1879-8578
Series E-ISSN: 2352-2585
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: LXXII, 520
Topics: History of Philosophy, Linguistics, general, Social Sciences, general, Philosophy of Law, Philosophy of Religion