“I have said more than once, that I hold space to be something purely relative, as time; an order of coexistences, as time is an order of successions.”

—  Gottfried Leibniz

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

Original

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.

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Gottfried Leibniz photo
Gottfried Leibniz 29
German mathematician and philosopher 1646–1716

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