Overview
- A new global picture of Leibniz’s ‘rationalism’ emerges in this book, a picture that comprises many aspects hitherto overlooked. Each chapter contributes to a better understanding of Leibniz’s conception and use of rationality in each field. Beyond that, when viewed side by side, compared, and contrasted, the multi-perspective approach of the book reveals a unique complexity, interconnection, and richness, which goes well beyond the familiar understanding of the label ‘rationalist’ traditionally applied to this intriguing thinker.
- For the first time a collective effort is made to examine in depth and from various perspectives the nature of Leibniz’s theoretical and practical rationalism. Specialists in different domains of Leibniz’s work have gathered in a week-long International Workshop to present and discuss facets of the concept of reason as it is elaborated and employed by Leibniz in these fields, and to inquire about its underlying connections and foundations.
- The book shows that Leibniz’s ‘rationalism’ is not restricted to a concern with expanding and applying a logical and mathematical model of thought and action. What the chapters of this book show is the variety of models Leibniz’s rationalism develops, combines, and makes use of in his variety of endeavours: mathematics, natural science, ethics, law, politics, theology, epistemology, and metaphysics.
- The contributors to this collective volume comprise leading Leibniz researchers from 12 countries, including the scholars in charge of the various Series of the Academy Edition of his writings, as well as young Leibniz researchers who represent the renewed and growing interest in hitherto neglected aspects of his thought.
Part of the book series: Logic, Epistemology, and the Unity of Science (LEUS, volume 13)
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Table of contents (33 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Introduction
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Front Matter
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Reinterpreting Leibniz’s Rationalism?
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Front Matter
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Natural Sciences and Mathematics
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Front Matter
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Law
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Front Matter
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Keywords
About this book
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was an outstanding contributor to many fields of human knowledge. The historiography of philosophy has tagged him as a “rationalist”. But what does this exactly mean? Is he a “rationalist” in the same sense in Mathematics and Politics, in Physics and Jurisprudence, in Metaphysics and Theology, in Logic and Linguistics, in Technology and Medicine, in Epistemology and Ethics? What are the most significant features of his “rationalism”, whatever it is?
For the first time an outstanding group of Leibniz researchers, some acknowledged as leading scholars, others in the beginning of a promising career, who specialize in the most significant areas of Leibniz’s contributions to human thought and action, were requested to spell out the nature of his rationalism in each of these areas, with a view to provide a comprehensive picture of what it amounts to, both in its general drive and in its specific features and eventual inner tensions.
The chapters of the book are the result of intense discussion in the course of an international conference focused on the title question of this book, and were selected in view of their contribution to this topic. They are clustered in thematically organized parts. No effort has been made to hide the controversies underlying the different interpretations of Leibniz’s “rationalism” – in each particular domain and as a whole. On the contrary, the editor firmly believes that only through a variety of conflicting interpretive perspectives can the multi-faceted nature of an oeuvre of such a magnitude and variety as Leibniz’s be brought to light and understood as it deserves.
Editors and Affiliations
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Leibniz: What Kind of Rationalist?
Editors: Marcelo Dascal
Series Title: Logic, Epistemology, and the Unity of Science
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8668-7
Publisher: Springer Dordrecht
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, Philosophy and Religion (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4020-8667-0Published: 13 September 2008
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4020-8668-7Published: 09 August 2008
Series ISSN: 2214-9775
Series E-ISSN: 2214-9783
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XX, 532
Topics: Modern Philosophy, History of Science, Ethics, Philosophy of Law, Philosophy of Religion