Geometry and Monadology

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XX

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2. Historical Survey

   • Vincenzo De Risi

   Pages 1-126

3. Geometry

   • Vincenzo De Risi

   Pages 127-295

4. Phenomenology

   • Vincenzo De Risi

   Pages 297-436

5. Metaphysics

   • Vincenzo De Risi

   Pages 437-577

6. Back Matter

   Pages 579-658

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This book reconstructs, both from the historical and theoretical points of view, Leibniz’s geometrical studies, focusing in particular on the research Leibniz carried on in the last years of his life. The main purpose of the work is to offer a better understanding of the philosophy of space and in general of the mature Leibnizean metaphysics, through a pressing confrontation with the problems of geometric foundation. Regarding this scope of problems, the book also deals quite in depth with Leibniz’s theory of sensibility, thus favouring the comparison and contrast between Leibniz’s philosophy and Kant’s transcendentalist solution. The Appendix gives editing to a number of previously unpublished manuscripts on geometry from the Leibniz Archiv.

• Analysis Situs
• ETA
• Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
• Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm
• geometry
• philosophy
• research

From the reviews:

I find his contribution to the debate on the reality of corporeal substances to be at once original and decisive. And finally, I am hugely impressed by the expertise he has brought to bear on both the purely formal and the deeply metaphysical sides, each requiring vastly different but equally considerable competences. I am impressed by the original way in which he makes sense of the phenomenalistic strains in Leibniz’s thought by connecting them with the metaphysics of expression, and this in turn with the foundation of real space. In sum, this dissertation is an extraordinary accomplishment.

(R.T.W. Arthur, McMaster University)

I believe that this is an extraordinary dissertation which sets new standards for Leibnizean scholarship—and, in particular, for historical and philosophical investigation into the relationship between Leibniz and Kant.

(M. Friedman, Stanford University)

“The book under review is based on a doctoral dissertation defended at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy. It deals with G. W. Leibniz’s lifelong project of founding a new geometrical science, the analysis situs. … In sum the author has provided a great survey of Leibniz’s writings on geometry presented with deep analyses in several fields of mathematics and metaphysics, providing a vivid impression of the interconnectedness of Leibniz’s general system of science.” (Volker Peckhaus, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1180, 2010)

• Scuola Normale Superiore, Piazza dei Cavalieri, Pisa, Italy

  Vincenzo Risi

Policies and ethics