Leibniz on Compossibility and Possible Worlds

262 Pages·2016·1.853 MB·English

by  Gregory Brown, Yual Chiek

The New Synthese Historical Library
Gregory Brown
Yual Chiek Editors
Leibniz on
Compossibility
and Possible
Worlds
The New Synthese Historical Library
Texts and Studies in the History of Philosophy
Volume 75
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More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/6608
Gregory Brown • Yual Chiek
Editors
Leibniz on Compossibility
and Possible Worlds
Editors
Gregory Brown Yual Chiek
Department of Philosophy Department of Philosophy
University of Houston Queen’s University
Houston, TX, USA Kingston, ON, Canada
ISSN 1879-8578 ISSN 2352-2585 (electronic)
The New Synthese Historical Library
ISBN 978-3-319-42693-8 ISBN 978-3-319-42695-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-42695-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016959266
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Contents
Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1
Gregory Brown and Yual Chiek
On the Source of Incompossibility in Leibniz’s Paris Notes
and Some Remarks on Time and Space as Packing Constraints ................ 21
Ohad Nachtomy
Leibniz’s World-Apart Doctrine .................................................................... 37
Adam Harmer
On Worlds, Laws and Tiles: Leibniz and the Problem
of Compossibility ............................................................................................. 65
Sebastian Bender
Compossibility and Co-possibility ................................................................. 91
Yual Chiek
Compossibility, Compatibility, Congruity .................................................... 125
Mogens Lærke
Leibniz, Acosmism, and Incompossibility ..................................................... 145
Thomas Feeney
Divine Faculties and the Puzzle of Incompossibility .................................... 175
Julia Joráti
Leibniz on the Possibility of a Spatial Vacuum,
the Connectedness Condition on Possible Worlds, and Miracles ............... 201
Gregory Brown
v
vi Contents
The Fate of the World (and Compossibility) After Leibniz:
The Development of Cosmology in German Philosophy
from Leibniz to Kant ...................................................................................... 227
James Messina
Author Index.................................................................................................... 251
Subject Index ................................................................................................... 253
Abbreviations
A G. W. Leibniz. Sämtliche Schriften und Briefe. Ed. by the Academy of
Sciences of Berlin. Series I-VIII. Darmstadt - Leipzig - Berlin, 1923 ff.
Cited by series, volume, and page. “N.” followed by an Arabic numeral
indicates the number assigned to the text by the editors.
AG G. W. Leibniz. Philosophical Essays. Ed. and trans. by Roger Ariew
and Daniel Garber. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1989.
BC G. W. Leibniz. Philosophische Werke. Ed. Artur Buchenau and Ernst
Cassirer. 4 vols. Leipzig, 1924.
C G. W. Leibniz. Opuscules et fragments inédits. Ed. Louis Couturat.
Paris: Félix. Alcan, 1903. Reprint, Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1966.
CD G. W. Leibniz. Causa Dei asserta per justitiam ejus, cum caeteris ejus
perfectionibus, cunctisque actionibus conciliatam (1710). Cited by
section.
CP G. W. Leibniz. Confessio philosophi: papers concerning the problem
of evil, 1671–1678. Ed. and trans. Robert C. Sleigh, Jr. New Haven:
Yale University Press, 2005.
CSM René Descartes. The Philosophical Writings of Descartes. Ed. by John
Cottingham, et al. 3 vols. New York: Cambridge University Press,
1984–91. Cited by volume and page.
DM Discourse on Metaphysics. Cited by section.
DSR G. W. Leibniz. De Summa Rerum: Metaphysical Papers, 1675–1676.
Ed. and trans. by G.H.R. Parkinson. New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1992.
Erdmann G. W. Leibniz. God. Guil. Leibnitii Opera philosophica quae extant
Latina Gallica Germanica omnia. Ed. by Johann Eduard Erdmann.
Berlin, 1840.
FB G. W. Leibniz. Réfutation inédite de Spinoza. Ed. by Foucher de Careil.
Paris, 1854.
GLR G. W. Leibniz. Discours de métaphysique et correspondance avec
Arnauld. Ed. by Georges Le Roy. Paris: Vrin, 1970.
vii
viii Abbreviations
GM G. W. Leibniz. Mathematische Schriften. Ed. by Carl Immanuel
Gerhardt. 7 vols. Berlin: A. Asher, and Halle: H. W. Schmidt,
1849–63.
GP G. W. Leibniz. Die Philosophischen Schriften von G. W. Leibniz. Ed.
by Carl Immanuel Gerhardt. 7 vols. Berlin: Weidmann, 1875-90.
Reprint, Hildesheim: Olms, 1965. Cited by volume and page.
Grua G. W. Leibniz. Textes inédits d'après les manuscrits de la Bibliothèque
Provinciale de Hanovre. Ed. by Gaston Grua. 2 vols. Paris: PUF, 1948.
Reprint, New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1985.
Guh G. W. Leibniz. Leibnitz’s Deutsche Schriften. Ed. by Gotschalk Eduard
Guhrauer. 2 vols. Berlin, 1838.
H G. W. Leibniz. Theodicy: Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom
of Man, and the Origin of Evil. Ed. by Austin M. Farrer and trans. by
E. M. Huggard. LaSalle, Ill.: Open Court, 1985.
HGA G. W. Leibniz and Samuel Clarke. The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence.
Ed. by Horace Gundry Alexander. New York: Manchester University
Press, 1956.
L G. W. Leibniz. Philosophical Papers and Letters. Ed. and trans. by
Leroy E. Loemker. 2nd ed. Dordrecht and Boston: Reidel, 1969.
LA G. W. Leibniz and Antoine Arnauld. The Leibniz-Arnauld
Correspondence. Ed. and trans. by H. T. Mason. Manchester:
Manchester University Press, 1967; New York: Garland, 1985.
LDV G. W. Leibniz and Burchard de Volder. The Leibniz-De Volder
Correspondence. Ed. and trans. by Paul Lodge. New Haven: Yale
University Press, 2013.
LR G. W. Leibniz and Bartholomew Des Bosses. The Leibniz-Des Bosses
Correspondence. Ed. and trans. by Brandon C. Look and Donald
Rutherford. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.
M G. W. Leibniz. Monadology. Cited by section.
Mollat G. W. Leibniz. Mittheilungen aus Leibnizens ungedruckten Schriften.
Ed. by Georg Mollat. Leibzig: H. Haessel, 1893.
MP G. W. Leibniz. Philosophical Writings. Ed. by George Henry Radcliffe
Parkinson and trans. by Mary Morris and George Henry Radcliffe
Parkinson. London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1973.
PNG G. W. Leibniz. Principles of Nature and Grace, Based on Reason.
Cited by section.
R G. W. Leibniz. The Political Writings of Leibniz. Ed. and trans. by
Patrick Riley. 2nd edition. New York: Cambridge University Press,
1988.
RA G. W. Leibniz. The Labyrinth of the Continuum: Writings on the
Continuum Problem, 1672–1686. Ed. and trans. by R. T. W. Arthur.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001.
RB G. W. Leibniz. New Essays on Human Understanding. Ed. and trans.
by Peter Remnant and Jonathan Bennett. 2nd edition. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Abbreviations ix
Schrecker G. W. Leibniz. Monadology and other Philosophical Essays. Ed. and
trans. by Paul and Ann Martin Schrecker. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill,
1965.
SLT G. W. Leibniz. The Shorter Leibniz Texts: A Collection of New
Translations. Ed. and trans. by Lloyd Strickland. London: Continuum,
2006.
T G. W. Leibniz. Theodicy, cited by section.
W G. W. Leibniz. Leibniz Selections. Ed. and trans. by Philip P. Wiener.
New York: Scribners, 1951.
WF G. W. Leibniz. Leibniz’s New System and Associated Contemporary
Texts. Trans. and ed. by R. S. Woolhouse and Richard Francks. Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1997.