Leibniz and the Ground of Possibility
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10701566 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Samuel Newlands (University of Notre Dame, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 122 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 155-187 |
| Publication date | 2013-04-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Philosophical Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0031-8108 • E-ISSN: 1558-1470 |
| Publisher | Duke University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1215/00318108-1963698 |
| OpenAlex | W2020617148 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 10 |
| References cited | 20 |
Leibniz’s views on modality are among the most discussed by his interpreters. Although most of the discussion has focused on Leibniz’s analyses of modality, this essay explores Leibniz’s grounding of modality. Leibniz holds that possibilities and possibilia are grounded in the intellect of God. Although other early moderns agreed that modal truths are in some way dependent on God, there were sharp disagreements surrounding two distinct questions: (1) On what in God do modal truths and modal truth-makers depend? (2) What is the manner(s) of dependence by which modal truths and modal truth-makers depend on God? Very roughly, Leibniz’s own answers are: (1) God’s intellect and (2) a form of ontological dependence. The essay first distinguishes Leibniz’s account from two nearby (and often misunderstood) alternatives found in Descartes and Spinoza. It then examines Leibniz’s theory in detail, showing how, on his account, God’s ideas provide both truth-makers for possibilities and necessities and an ontological foothold for those truth-makers, thereby explaining modal truths. Along the way, it suggests several refinements and possible amendments to Leibniz’s grounding thesis. It then defends Leibniz against a pair of recent objections by Robert Merrihew Adams and Andrew Chignell that invoke the early work of Kant. I conclude that whereas Leibniz’s alternative avoids collapsing into yet another form of Spinozism, the alternatives proposed by Adams, Chignell, and the early Kant do not
Common ground · Epistemology · Intellect · Metaphysics · Modal · Modality (human–computer interaction) · Computer Science · Historical Philosophy and Science · Medieval and Classical Philosophy · Medieval Philosophy and Theology · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology
Contingency in Leibniz's Philosophical Theology
The real problem of pure reason
Spinoza on Counterpossible Inferences
From theism to idealism to monism
Leibniz on modality and counterparts
Kant on the Dual Grounding of Possibility
The Relation between God and the World in the Pre-Critical Kant
Backing into Spinozism
Against the reduction of modality to essence
Leibniz and the Proof of God's Existence from Eternal Truths
A Combinatorial Theory of Possibility
Existential Dependence and Cognate Notions
Metaphysical Dependence
Dialogues on Metaphysics
Henry of Ghent on the Reality of Non-Existing Possibles – Revisited
The Philosophy of Leibniz
Dialogues on Metaphysics and on Religion
Monism
Spinoza’s Metaphysics of Substance
Whatever Happened to Kant’s Ontological Argument
The Harmony of Spinoza and Leibniz
What is at Stake in the Cartesian Debates on the Eternal Truths
| Citations per year | 0.91 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2015 - 2026 (12) |
| Highly cited | No |