Or, comme il y a une infinité d'univers possibles dans les idées de Dieu, et qu'il n'en peut exister qu'un seul, il faut qu'il y ait une raison suffisante du choix de Dieu qui le détermine à l'un plutôt qu'à l'autre. Et cette raison ne peut se trouver que dans la convenance, dans les degrés de perfection que ces mondes contiennent, chaque possible ayant droit de prétendre à l'existence à mesure de la perfection qu'il enveloppe.
La monadologie (53 & 54).
The Monadology (1714)
Works
Discourse on Metaphysics
Gottfried LeibnizThéodicée
Gottfried Leibniz
Gottfried Leibniz:
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Famous Gottfried Leibniz Quotes
“Every substance is as a world apart, independent of everything else except God.”
Chaque substance est comme un monde à part, indépendant de toute autre chose, hors de Dieu...
Discours de métaphysique (1686)
As quoted in The World of Mathematics (1956) by J. R. Newman, p. 1832
“TO LOVE is to find pleasure in the happiness of others.”
"A Dialogue" (after 1695), as quoted in The Shorter Leibniz Texts (2006) http://books.google.com/books?id=oFoCY3xJ8nkC&dq edited by Lloyd H. Strickland, p. 170
Context: TO LOVE is to find pleasure in the happiness of others. Thus the habit of loving someone is nothing other than BENEVOLENCE by which we want the good of others, not for the profit that we gain from it, but because it is agreeable to us in itself.
CHARITY is a general benevolence. And JUSTICE is charity in accordance with wisdom. … so that one does not do harm to someone without necessity, and that one does as much good as one can, but especially where it is best employed.
The Shorter Leibniz Texts (2006) http://books.google.com/books?id=oFoCY3xJ8nkC&dq edited by Lloyd H. Strickland, p. 111
“Why is there anything at all rather than nothing whatsoever?”
cur aliquid potius extiterit quam nihil
De rerum originatione radicali (1697); reprinted in God. Guil. Leibnitii Opera philosophica quae exstant latina, gallica, germanica omniaː 1 http://books.google.gr/books?id=Huv3Q0IimL0C&vq= (1840), p. 148
Cf. Martin Heidegger, What is Metaphysics? (1929)ː "Warum ist überhaupt Seiendes und nicht vielmehr Nichts? Das ist die Frage."
Gottfried Leibniz Quotes about the world
Gottfried Leibniz (May, 1686) as quoted in George R. Montgomery, Tr., "Correspondence between Leibniz and Arnauld," Leibniz: Discourse on metaphysics; correspondence with Arnauld, and Monadology https://books.google.com/books?id=5-IeAQAAMAAJ (1916) VIII, p. 108
De quelque manière que Dieu aurait créé le monde, il aurait toujours été régulier et dans un certain ordre général. Mais Dieu a choisi celui qui est le plus parfait, c’est-à-dire celui qui est en même temps le plus simple en hypothèses et le plus riche en phénomènes...
Discours de métaphysique (1686); Leibniz famously tried to show that ours is the best of all possible worlds (see also Monadologie (53 & 54) below and compare Maimonides from Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), "Whatever is formed of matter receives the most perfect form possible in that species of matter.") These attempts were mercilessly parodied in Voltaire's Candide. Quotations from Voltaire's novel are often mistakenly attributed to Leibniz. Other statements by Leibniz upon the subject include these:
S'il n'y avait pas le meilleur (optimum) parmi tous les mondes possibles, Dieu n'en aurait produit aucun.
If there were no best among all possible worlds, God would not have created one.
Théodicée (1710)ː I. 8
I do not believe that a world without evil, preferable in order to ours, is possible; otherwise it would have been preferred. It is necessary to believe that the mixture of evil has produced the greatest possible good: otherwise the evil would not have been permitted.
The combination of all the tendencies to the good has produced the best; but as there are goods that are incompatible together, this combination and this result can introduce the destruction of some good, and as a result some evil.
Letter to Bourguet (late 1712)], as translated in The Shorter Leibniz Texts (2006) http://books.google.com/books?id=oFoCY3xJ8nkC&dq edited by Lloyd H. Strickland, p. 208
Anecdote (1701) from John Conduitt's manuscript, as quoted by Sir David Brewster, Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton (1855) Vol.2 https://books.google.com/books?id=Bp8RAAAAYAAJ
Ce miracle de l'Analyse, prodige du monde des idées, objet presque amphibie entre l'Être et le Non-être, que nous appelons racine imaginaire.
Quoted in Singularités : individus et relations dans le système de Leibniz (2003) by Christiane Frémont
Nouveaux essais sur l'entendement humain (1704)
Gottfried Leibniz Quotes
J'ay marqué plus d'une fois, que je tenois l'espace pour quelque chose de purement relatif, comme le temps; pour un ordre des coëxistences, comme le temps est un ordre des successions.
Third letter http://www.physics.ubc.ca/~berciu/PHILIP/TEACHING/PHYS340/EXTRA/FILES/Leibniz-ClarkeA.pdf to Samuel Clarke, February 25, 1716
La monadologie (17).
The Monadology (1714)
“My philosophical views approach somewhat closely those of the late Countess of Conway”
Letter to Thomas Burnet (1697), as quoted in Platonism, Aristotelianism and Cabalism in the Philosophy of Leibniz (1938) by Joseph Politella, p. 18
Context: My philosophical views approach somewhat closely those of the late Countess of Conway, and hold a middle position between Plato and Democritus, because I hold that all things take place mechanically as Democritus and Descartes contend against the views of Henry More and his followers, and hold too, nevertheless, that everything takes place according to a living principle and according to final causes — all things are full of life and consciousness, contrary to the views of the Atomists.
“Everything that is possible demands to exist.”
Omne possibile exigit existere.
De veritatibus primis (1686)
Letter 11 to Grimarest: Passages Concerning the Abbe de St. Pierre's 'Project for Perpetual Peace (June 1712). Taken from Leibniz: Political Writings (2nd Edition, 1988), Edited by Patrick Riley.
“Only geometry can hand us the thread [which will lead us through] the labyrinth of the continuum’s composition, the maximum and the minimum, the infinitesimal and the infinite; and no one will arrive at a truly solid metaphysic except he who has passed through this [labyrinth].”
Nam filum labyrintho de compositione continui deque maximo et minimo ac indesignabili at que infinito non nisi geometria praebere potest, ad metaphysicam vero solidam nemo veniet, nisi qui illac transiverit.
Dissertatio Exoterica De Statu Praesenti et Incrementis Novissimis Deque Usu Geometriae (Spring 1676)
Source: Leibniz, Leibnizens Mathematische Schriften, Herausgegeben Von C.I. Gerhardt. Bd. 1-7. 1850-1863. Halle. The quotation is found in vol. 7. on page 326 in ”Dissertatio Exoterica De Statu Praesenti et Incrementis Novissimis Deque Usu Geometriae”. Link https://archive.org/stream/leibnizensmathe12leibgoog
Source: Geometry and Monadology: Leibniz's Analysis Situs and Philosophy of Space by Vincenzo de Risi. Page 123. Link https://books.google.no/books?id=2ptGkzsKyOQC&lpg=PA123&ots=qz2aKxAYtp&dq=Dissertatio%20Exoterica%20De%20Statu%20Praesenti%20et%20Incrementis%20Novissimis%20Deque%20Usu%20Geometriae%E2%80%9D&hl=no&pg=PA123#v=onepage&q&f=false
“Music is a hidden arithmetic exercise of the soul, which does not know that it is counting.”
Musica est exercitium arithmeticae occultum nescientis se numerare animi.
Letter to Christian Goldbach, April 17, 1712.
Arthur Schopenhauer paraphrased this quotation in the first book of Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung: Musica est exercitium metaphysices occultum nescientis se philosophari animi. (Music is a hidden metaphysical exercise of the soul, which does not know that it is philosophizing.)
Ainsi on peut dire que non seulement l'âme, miroir d'un univers indestructible, est indestructible, mais encore l'animal même, quoique sa machine périsse souvent en partie, et quitte ou prenne des dépouilles organiques.
La monadologie (77).
Sometimes paraphrased as: The soul is the mirror of an indestructible universe.
The Monadology (1714)
“Theologian: But what is to love?
Philosopher: To be delighted by the happiness of another.”
Theologus: Amare autem?
Philosophus: Felicitate alterius delectari.
Confessio philosophi (1673)
“De arte characteristica ad perficiendas scientias ratione nitentes in C. I. Gerhardt (ed.), Die philosophischen Schriften von Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (7 vols. 1875–1890) VII 125.”
quando orientur controversiae, non magis disputatione opus erit inter duos philosophus, quam inter duos computistas. Sufficiet enim calamos in manus sumere sedereque ad abacos, et sibi mutuo (accito si placet amico) dicere: calculemus
"[...] if controversies were to arise, there would be no more need of disputation between two philosophers than between two calculators. For it would suffice for them to take their pencils in their hands and to sit down at the abacus, and say to each other (and if they so wish also to a friend called to help): Let us calculate."
The famous calculemus of Leibniz appears in several places of his writing; this is the most frequently quoted; variants are found in the Preface to his New Essays on Human Understanding, and in Dissertatio de Arte Combinatoria (1666). See R. Chrisley, Artificial Intelligence (2000), p. 14 https://books.google.ch/books?id=dLQ3bDy2tgYC&pg=PA14#v=onepage&q&f=false; H. Busche, Leibniz' Weg ins perspektivische Universum (1997), p. 134 https://books.google.ch/books?id=xAI4Wtp0GBoC&pg=PA134&lpg=PA134.
Il y a deux labyrinthes fameux où notre raison s’égare bien souvent : l'un regarde la grande question du libre et du nécessaire, surtout dans la production et dans l'origine du mal ; l'autre consiste dans la discussion de la continuité et des indivisibles qui en paraissent les éléments, et où doit entrer la considération de l'infini.
Théodicée (1710)ː Préface
Il y a aussi deux sortes de vérités, celles de Raisonnement et celle de Fait. Les vérités de Raisonnement sont nécessaires et leur opposé est impossible, et celles de Fait sont contingentes et leur opposé est possible.
La monadologie (33).
The Monadology (1714)
La nature ne fait jamais des sauts.
Avant-propos to Nouveaux essais sur l'entendement humain (1704).
A later, more famous Latin version — "Natura non facit saltus" — is from the Philosophia Botanica (1751) by Linnaeus.
A variant translation is "natura non saltum facit" (literally, "Nature does not make a jump") ([Ökonomische Theorie und christlicher Glaube, Andrew, Britton, Peter H., Sedgwick, Burghard, Bock, LIT Verlag Münster, 2008, 978-3-8258-0162-5, 289, https://books.google.com/books?id=goW6JsEUz4EC] Extract of page 289 https://books.google.com/books?id=goW6JsEUz4EC&pg=PA289).
Pour ce qui est des connaissances non-écrites qui se trouvent dispersées parmi les hommes de différents professions, je suis persuadé qu’ils passent de beaucoup tant à l'égard de la multitude que de l'importance, tout ce qui se trouve marqué dans les livres, et que la meilleure partie de notre trésor n'est pas encore enregistrée.
Discours touchant la méthode de la certitude et de l'art d'inventer pour finir les disputes et pour faire en peu de temps de grands progrès (1688–1690)
Et comme tout présent état d'une substance simple est naturellement une suite de son état précédent, tellement, que le présent y est gros de l'avenir.
La monadologie (22).
The Monadology (1714)
The Elements of True Piety (c. 1677), The Shorter Leibniz Texts (2006) http://books.google.com/books?id=oFoCY3xJ8nkC&dq edited by Lloyd H. Strickland, p. 189
“Even in the games of children there are things to interest the greatest mathematician.”
Il y a jusque dans les exercices des enfants ce qui pourrait arrêter le plus grand Mathématicien.
Discours touchant la méthode de la certitude et de l'art d'inventer pour finir les disputes et pour faire en peu de temps de grands progrès (1688–1690)
Closing sentence of the Preface to the general science (1677) (in P. Wiener (ed.), Leibniz Selections, Macmilland Press Ltd, 1951).
