Great Audiobooks Discourse on Metaphysics, by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Part II.
Jul 7, 2023
A brisk tour of Leibnizian metaphysics: divine design in physics and biology, and the case for final causes alongside mechanical explanations. Discussions cover light’s optimal paths, kinds of knowledge, innate ideas versus sense learning, and the soul’s relation to the body via pre-established harmony. The narrative closes on divine providence, grace, and the spiritual order culminating in Christ’s revelation of the heavenly city.
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Snellius And Fermat Used Purpose To Find Optics Laws
- Leibniz recounts how Snellius and Fermat used final causes to derive reflection and refraction laws by seeking the easiest path for rays.
- He contrasts this with Descartes’ mechanical derivation, calling the final-cause route more insightful.
Degrees And Kinds Of Knowledge Clarify Truth
- Leibniz classifies knowledge: confused, distinct, adequate, intuitive, and distinguishes nominal, real, causal, and essential definitions.
- He emphasizes that real definitions reveal possibility a priori; essential ones analyze to primitive conceptions.
Ideas Are In Us As Dispositions Not Imported Impressions
- Leibniz endorses a Platonic reminiscence: ideas are always in the soul as dispositions, not imported through the senses.
- He denies pre-existence but says the mind already contains forms that thinking unfolds when needed.