Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm - Leibnizs Monadology: a new translation and guide

Leibnizs
Monadology

A New Translation and Guide

LLOYD STRICKLAND

EDINBURGH

University Press

For Dan Cook and Vernon Pratt,
for all of the help and support over the years: thank you

Lloyd Strickland, 2014

Edinburgh University Press Ltd
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Contents

Acknowledgements

I would like to extend my warmest thanks to an anonymous reviewer for Edinburgh University Press for feedback on the entire manuscript.

Parts of the commentary were incorporated into a talk given to members of the Oxford Philosophical Society in November 2013. I would like to thank everyone present for their comments, and especially Julia Weckend for her insightful discussion on a number of topics, and for feedback on parts of the commentary.

A draft of the whole commentary was used as the basis of discussion for a reading group on monadologies at the University of Edinburgh in January and February 2014. The feedback I received was very helpful, and I would like to thank the members of that group for their careful reading of the commentary: Reiko Goto-Collins, Emily Brady, Anna Ortin, Brian Smith, James Henry Collin, Peter Fosl, Alasdair Isaac, Jeremy Dunham, and Pauline Phemister.

My thanks are also due to Daniel J. Cook for helpful feedback on a draft of the introductory essay, and to R. R. Rockingham-Gill for comments and guidance on the Structure of the Monadology.

Thanks also to Sean Greenberg and R. C. Sleigh Jr, who allowed me to consult a draft of parts of their new translation of the Theodicy (forthcoming with the Oxford University Press). The exercise of comparing their translation with mine was very beneficial, and allowed me to improve my translation of some of the sections of the Theodicy included in this volume.

I acknowledge with gratitude the permission granted by the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Bibliothek, Hanover, to use a scan of the first page of the manuscript of the Monadology on the cover of this volume.

At Edinburgh University Press, I would like to thank Carol MacDonald, who commissioned the project, and Rebecca Mackenzie, who managed it, and Michelle Houston. Thanks also to Tim Clark, who copy edited the typescript.

Key

In the translation of the Monadology and the Principles of Nature and Grace, text enclosed within square brackets [... ] was present in one or more of the earlier drafts, but subsequently deleted. I have not indicated all of Leibnizs deletions, only those likely to be of philosophical interest.

In the commentary, when referring to translated material contained within this volume, the following abbreviations are used:

References to the Appendix on Monads are given simply by citing the relevant page number of this volume.

Abbreviations

In the notes, commonly cited editions of Leibnizs writings are referred to using the following conventions:

Introduction

Few works of philosophy can rival Leibnizs Monadology in terms of sweep: it begins with an account of the most basic substances, monads, and ends with Gods intimate relation to the most exalted of these substances, namely minds, and in between it covers (among other things) the natures of perception, sensation, and thought, the principles of reasoning, the existence and nature of God, the creation of the best possible world, and the organic structure of bodies. In covering all of this ground, and more, not only does the Monadology seek to present many of the key elements of Leibnizs mature philosophy and mount a defence of them, it does so in the space of ninety short sections, amounting to approximately 6,000 words. It is difficult not be struck by both its scope and its size, and in particular the apparent disparity between the two. In the entire history of philosophy there is little else like it. Great philosophers, as a rule, have sought to present their thought to the public through the medium of books, often ones of great length: think of Platos Republic