Leibniz and the Kabbalah

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

   PDF

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

    PDF

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.

• Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
• Jan Baptist van Helmont
• Kabbalah
• Leibniz Studies
• Lurianic Kabbalah
• Voltaire
• theodicy

• Arizona State University, Arizona, USA

  Allison P. Coudert

Policies and ethics