1st Edition

Leibniz’s Legacy and Impact

Edited By Julia Weckend, Lloyd Strickland Copyright 2020
    334 Pages 13 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    334 Pages 13 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This volume tells the story of the legacy and impact of the great German polymath Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716). Leibniz made significant contributions to many areas, including philosophy, mathematics, political and social theory, theology, and various sciences. The essays in this volume explores the effects of Leibniz’s profound insights on subsequent generations of thinkers by tracing the ways in which his ideas have been defended and developed in the three centuries since his death. Each of the 11 essays is concerned with Leibniz’s legacy and impact in a particular area, and between them they show not just the depth of Leibniz’s talents but also the extent to which he shaped the various domains to which he contributed, and in some cases continues to shape them today. With essays written by experts such as Nicholas Jolley, Pauline Phemister, and Philip Beeley, this volume is essential reading not just for students of Leibniz but also for those who wish to understand the game-changing impact made by one of history’s true universal geniuses.

    Introduction:



    Making Waves: Leibniz’s Legacy and Impact



    Lloyd Strickland and Julia Weckend





    Part I: Early Receptions







    1. Leibniz and the Royal Society Revisited




    2. Philip Beeley





    3. Staying Optimistic! The Trials and Tribulations of Leibnizian Optimism




    4. Lloyd Strickland





    5. On Leibniz and Hume – A Point of Contact




    6. Julia Weckend





    7. Kant’s "True Apology for Leibniz"




    8. Nicholas Jolley





      Part II: Legacy in Science and Metaphysics





    9. Leibnizian Conservation in d’Alembert’s Traité de dynamique




    10. Tzuchien Tho





    11. Russian Leibnizianism




    12. Frédéric Tremblay





    13. Monkeys and Monads: The Unexpected Marriage between Darwinian Evolutionary Theory and Leibnizian Metaphysics




    14. Jeremy Dunham





    15. "The point of view is in the body": Leibnizian Perspectivism in Contemporary Anthropologies




    16. Arnaud Pelletier





      Part III: Impact in Law, Political Thought and Ecology





    17. The Impact of Leibniz’s Geometric Method for the Law




    18. Christopher Johns





    19. Leibniz and Political Thought




    20. Douglas Moggach





    21. Theoria cum praxi: Leibniz’s Legacy into the Future




    Pauline Phemister

    Biography

    Lloyd Strickland is Professor of Philosophy and Intellectual History at Manchester Metropolitan University (UK). His principal research interests are Early Modern Philosophy (especially Leibniz), and Philosophy of Religion. In addition to numerous journal articles he has published nine books, including Leibniz Reinterpreted (2006), Leibniz and the Two Sophies (2011), Leibniz’s Monadology (2014), Leibniz on God and Religion (2016), Tercentenary Essays on the Philosophy and Science of Leibniz (2017, with Julia Weckend and Erik Vynckier), Proofs of God in Early Modern Europe (2018), and Leibniz's Key Philosophical Writings (2019, with Paul Lodge). He also runs a website which contains many of his translations of Leibniz’s writings: http://www.leibniz-translations.com



    Julia Weckend has taught philosophy at the Universities of Southampton and Reading before joining Oxford University’s Department for Continuing Education as a tutor in 2014. Her research interests are Early Modern Philosophy, in particular Leibnizian metaphysics and epistemology. Her publications include papers on Leibniz’s notions of freedom and possibility, Leibniz’s notion of certainty, and a new translation of Leibniz’s "On the True Mystical Theology" to be found in Lloyd Strickland’s volume Leibniz on God and Religion (2016). She is the co-editor of Tercentenary Essays on the Philosophy and Science of Leibniz (2016).

    "A fine collection of original essays by leading Leibniz scholars on the impact of his thought in areas as diverse as legal theory, evolution, mathematics, environmental philosophy, and the social sciences."Richard Arthur, McMaster University, Canada