German - Philosopher | July 1, 1646 - November 14, 1716
I hold that the mark of a genuine idea is that its possibility can be proved, either a priori by conceiving its cause or reason, or a posteriori when experience teaches us that it is in fact in nature.
Gottfried Leibniz
NatureExperienceGenuineReasonUs
Indeed every monad must be different from every other. For there are never in nature two beings, which are precisely alike, and in which it is not possible to find some difference which is internal, or based on some intrinsic quality.
NatureQualityBe DifferentFindTwo
It can have its effect only through the intervention of God, inasmuch as in the ideas of God a monad rightly demands that God, in regulating the rest from the beginning of things, should have regard to itself.
GodBeginningIdeasRestThrough
It follows from what we have just said, that the natural changes of monads come from an internal principle, since an external cause would be unable to influence their inner being.
InfluenceSaidChangesNaturalJust
Now where there are no parts, there neither extension, nor shape, nor divisibility is possible. And these monads are the true atoms of nature and, in a word, the elements of things.
NatureNowTruePossibleShapeWord
This is why the ultimate reason of things must lie in a necessary substance, in which the differentiation of the changes only exists eminently as in their source; and this is what we call God.
GodLieWhyChangesReasonSource
Copyright © 2024 QuotesDict Gottfried Leibniz quotes