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Leibniz and the Kabbalah

  • Book
  • © 1995

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Authors:
  1. Allison P. Coudert

    1. Arizona State University, Arizona, USA

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Table of contents (9 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvii
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  2. Introduction

    • Allison P. Coudert
    Pages 1-14

  3. A Brief Historiography of Leibniz Studies

    • Allison P. Coudert
    Pages 15-24

  4. Van Helmont, Leibniz, and the Kabbalah

    • Allison P. Coudert
    Pages 25-34

  5. Leibniz and Van Helmont: Their Friendship and Collaboration

    • Allison P. Coudert
    Pages 35-77

  6. The Kabbalah and Monads

    • Allison P. Coudert
    Pages 78-98

  7. The Kabbalah and Freedom and Determinism

    • Allison P. Coudert
    Pages 99-111

  8. The Kabbalah and Leibniz’s Theodicy

    • Allison P. Coudert
    Pages 112-135

  9. Causation, Language, and the Kabbalah

    • Allison P. Coudert
    Pages 136-154

  10. Conclusion

    • Allison P. Coudert
    Pages 155-157

  11. Back Matter

    Pages 158-225
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Keywords

About this book

The general view of scholars is that the Kabbalah had no meaningful influence on Leibniz's thought. } But on the basis of new evidence I am convinced that the question must be reopened. The Kabbalah did influence Leibniz, and a recognition of this will lead to both a better understanding of the supposed "quirkiness,,2 of Leibniz's philosophy and an appreciation ofthe Kabbalah as an integral but hitherto ignored factor in the emergence of the modem secular and scientifically oriented world. During the past twenty years there has been increasing willingness to recognize the important ways in which mystical and occult thinking contributed to the development of science and the emergence 3 of toleration. However, the Kabbalah, particularly the Lurianic Kabbalah with its monistic vitalism and optimistic philosophy of perfectionism and universal salvation, has not yet been integrated into the new historiography, although it richly deserves to be. On the basis of manuscripts in libraries at Hanover and Wolfenbiittel, it is clear that Leibniz's relationship with Francis Mercury van Helmont (1614- 1698) and Christian Knorr von Rosenroth (1636-1689), the two leading Christian Kabbalists of the period, was much closer than previously imagined and that his direct knowledge of their writings, especially the collection of 4 kabbalistic texts they published in the Kabbala Denudata, was far more detailed than most scholars have realized. During 1688 Leibniz spent more than a month at Sulzbach with von Rosenroth.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Arizona State University, Arizona, USA

    Allison P. Coudert

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