Monads, Composition, and Force

Monads, Composition, and Force
Author: Richard T. W. Arthur
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2018-09-26
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 019254215X

Leibniz's monads have long been a source of fascination and puzzlement. If monads are merely immaterial, how can they alone constitute reality? In Monads, Composition and Force, Richard T. W. Arthur takes seriously Leibniz's claim of introducing monads to solve the problem of the composition of matter and motion. Going against a trend of idealistic interpretations of Leibniz's thought, Arthur argues that although monads are presupposed as the principles making actual each of the infinite parts of matter, bodies are not composed of them. He offers a fresh interpretation of Leibniz's theory of substance in which monads are enduring primitive forces, corporeal substances are embodied monads, and bodies are aggregates of monads, not mere appearances. In this reading the monads are constitutive unities, constituting an organic unity of function through time, and bodies are phenomenal in two senses; as ever-changing things they are Platonic phenomena and as pluralities, in being perceived together, they are also Democritean phenomena. Arthur argues for this reading by describing how Leibniz's thought is grounded in seventeenth century atomism and the metaphysics of the plurality of forms, showing how his attempt to make this foundation compatible with mechanism undergirds his insightful contributions to biological science and the dynamical foundations he provides for modern physics.

Monads, Composition, and Force

Monads, Composition, and Force
Author: Richard T. W. Arthur
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 504
Release: 2018-09-25
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0192542168

Leibniz's monads have long been a source of fascination and puzzlement. If monads are merely immaterial, how can they alone constitute reality? In Monads, Composition and Force, Richard T. W. Arthur takes seriously Leibniz's claim of introducing monads to solve the problem of the composition of matter and motion. Going against a trend of idealistic interpretations of Leibniz's thought, Arthur argues that although monads are presupposed as the principles making actual each of the infinite parts of matter, bodies are not composed of them. He offers a fresh interpretation of Leibniz's theory of substance in which monads are enduring primitive forces, corporeal substances are embodied monads, and bodies are aggregates of monads, not mere appearances. In this reading the monads are constitutive unities, constituting an organic unity of function through time, and bodies are phenomenal in two senses; as ever-changing things they are Platonic phenomena and as pluralities, in being perceived together, they are also Democritean phenomena. Arthur argues for this reading by describing how Leibniz's thought is grounded in seventeenth century atomism and the metaphysics of the plurality of forms, showing how his attempt to make this foundation compatible with mechanism undergirds his insightful contributions to biological science and the dynamical foundations he provides for modern physics.

Leibniz on Time, Space, and Relativity

Leibniz on Time, Space, and Relativity
Author: Richard T. W. Arthur
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 421
Release: 2022-01-15
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0192849077

In this book, Arthur gives fresh interpretations of Gottfried Leibniz's theories of time, space, and the relativity of motion, based on a thorough examination of Leibniz's manuscripts as well as his published papers. These are analysed in historical context, but also with an eye to their contemporary relevance. Leibniz's views on relativity have been extremely influential, first on Mach, and then on Einstein, while his novel approach to geometry in his analysis situs inspired many later developments in geometry. Arthur expounds the latter in some detail, explaining its relationship to Leibniz's metaphysics of space and the grounding of motion, and defending Leibniz's views on the relativity of motion against charges of inconsistency. The brilliance of his work on time, though, has not been so well appreciated, and Arthur attempts to remedy this through a detailed discussion of Leibniz's relational theory of time, showing how it underpins his theory of possible worlds, his complex account of contingency, and his highly original treatment of the continuity of time, providing formal treatments in an appendix. In other appendices, Arthur provides translations of previously untranslated writings by Leibniz on analysis situs and on Copernicanism, as well as an essay on Leibniz's philosophy of relations. In his introductory chapter he explains how the framework for the book is provided by the interpretation of Leibniz's metaphysics he defended in his earlier Monads, Composition, and Force (OUP 2018, winner of the 2019 annual JHP Book Prize for best book in the history of philosophy published in 2018).

The Fold

The Fold
Author: Laura U. Marks
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2024-02-02
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1478059125

In The Fold, Laura U. Marks offers a practical philosophy and aesthetic theory for living in an infinitely connected cosmos. Drawing on the theories of Leibniz, Glissant, Deleuze, and theoretical physicist David Bohm—who each conceive of the universe as being folded in on itself in myriad ways—Marks contends that the folds of the cosmos are entirely constituted of living beings. From humans to sandwiches to software to stars, every entity is alive and occupies its own private enclosure inside the cosmos. Through analyses of fiction, documentary, and experimental movies, interactive media, and everyday situations, Marks outlines embodied methods for detecting and augmenting the connections between each living entity and the cosmos. She shows that by affectively mediating with the ever-shifting folded relations within the cosmos, it is possible to build “soul-assemblages” that challenge information capitalism, colonialism, and other power structures and develop new connections with the infinite. With this guide for living within the enfolded and unfolding cosmos, Marks teaches readers to richly apprehend the world and to trace the processes of becoming that are immanent within the fold.

The Monadology

The Monadology
Author: Gottfried Wilhelm Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Total Pages: 26
Release: 2018-03-13
Genre:
ISBN: 9781986704465

The Monadology (French: La Monadologie, 1714) is one of Gottfried Leibniz's best known works representing his later philosophy. It is a short text which sketches in some 90 paragraphs a metaphysics of simple substances, or monads. In it, he offers a new solution to mind and matter interaction by means of a pre-established harmony expressed as the 'Best of all possible worlds' form of optimism.

Leibniz's Final System

Leibniz's Final System
Author: Glenn A. Hartz
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2006-10-19
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1135989192

As the first major work on realism in Leibniz's metaphysics, this key text demonstrates that it is not possible to maintain compatibility of phenomenalist and realist views – they must be understood as completely separate trends of thought in Leibniz.

Programming Languages and Systems

Programming Languages and Systems
Author: Naoki Kobayashi
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 433
Release: 2006-11-06
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 3540489371

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 4th Asian Symposium on Programming Languages and Systems, APLAS 2006, held in Sydney, Australia in November 2006. The 22 revised full papers presented together with 2 invited talks and 1 tutorial examine foundational and practical issues in programming languages and systems.

Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy Volume 3

Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy Volume 3
Author: Daniel Garber
Publisher: Clarendon Press
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2006-08-10
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0191525340

Oxford University Press is proud to present the third volume in a new annual series, presenting a selection of the best current work in the history of philosophy. Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy focuses on the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries—-the extraordinary period of intellectual flourishing that begins, very roughly, with Descartes and his contemporaries and ends with Kant. It also publishes papers on thinkers or movements outside of that framework, provided they are important in illuminating early modern thought. The articles in OSEMP will be of importance to specialists within the discipline, but the editors also intend that they should appeal to a larger audience of philosophers, intellectual historians, and others who are interested in the development of modern thought.