Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was one of the few philosophers of the Enlightenment era whose basic ideas are to this day held to be valid. Descartes's clumsy mind/body dualism and ontological proof of God's existence very few adhere to these days; Kant has refuted Hume's skepticism to great success; and Berkeley, well, while no one has quite been able to refute his idealism, very few actually believe in it. While many of Leibniz's ideas have in fact been contradicted by the general consensus in philosophy these days, many more remain valid, and have been outright seminal for 20th-century progress. Thanks to Leibniz the old Scholastic "logical problem of evil" has been replaced by the "evidential problem of evil". Leibniz's thought has given rise to modern modal logic and the possible world theory of thinkers like David Lewis.

The purpose of this site is to discuss and explain Leibniz's philosophy to those who may not be familiar with it. It is also meant as an aid to students who are researching the philosopher. If you know basic logic and philosophical terminology, it will be of great help; and while I shall try to write with a view to explain things in layman's terms, some of what you will find here will be perhaps a little difficult if you have no background in philosophy.

I have broken the discussion into the areas at the top of this page. While I may occasionally discuss and critique his ideas from the contemporary perspective, my main purpose is not to validate or invalidate the man according to contemporary thought, but look to and understand what he actually said and meant.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you enjoy.

Jason Stuart Ratcliff

*All the quoted texts by Leibniz are from G.W. Leibniz, Philosophical Essays, edited and translated by Roger Ariew and Daniel Garber, Hackett Publishing Company, Indianapolis & Cambridge, 1989. The page numbers are in reference to this edition.*

[Leibniz links]