Book Chapter

Gottf Ried Wilhelm Leibniz

Jolley, Nicholas, Nicholas Jolley

2011

Overview

Leibniz is generally classified as a successor of Descartes in the Rationalist tradition, but in one way this classification is misleading: it tends to suggest a greater similarity between them in epistemology than really exists. It is true of course that both philosophers urge that genuine knowledge is to be achieved by turning away from the senses, and they emphasize the superiority of the pure intellect over the imagination. But in general Leibniz's approach to epistemology is very different from Descartes'. Unlike Descartes Leibniz was never greatly exercised by the problem of radical skepticism, and he was critical of Descartes' method of doubt as a starting-point in philosophy. Indeed, Leibniz's conception of the role of epistemology in philosophy aligns him more with the third major Rationalist, Spinoza, than with Descartes. In his most important expository works, such as the Discourse on Metaphysics, Leibniz, like Spinoza in the Ethics , generally seeks to deduce a theory of knowledge from metaphysical premises. Whether or not he was directly influenced by him, Leibniz shares Spinoza's conviction that the proper method in philosophy is to begin with a theory of substance and to derive epistemological consequences from that theory.

• Publisher: Routledge
• ISBN: 9780415722698, 0415962196, 9780415962193, 0415722691