In this series of readings of the Discourses on Metaphysics (1686), we are introduced to the deeper philosophical and scientific ideas of the polymath genius Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716).
This reading will cover the essential concepts of the nature of the Creator and creation of which we as self-conscious reasoners are integral components possessing both “subjective” as well as “objective” characteristics. Leibniz’s essential principles of reasoning are laid down in these first 12 of 36 sections of his famous essay- including how the mind can conceptualize the most reasonable idea of a Creator which must be both maximally good, reasonable and perfectible rather than simply all powerful as his enemies among the British Royal Society maintain.
Leibniz also lays down the groundwork for why we must have been created in God’s image, and how the empiricist school then dominated by the theories of Newton, Hobbes, Locke, and Descartes have fatal flaws that would handicap the creative, and moral powers of anyone trapped within its cage of blind assumptions and rules of logic.
To take part in future reading groups, simply write to info@risingtidefoundation.net
Supplementary information
The Discourse on Metaphysics (full text)
Cynthia Chung’s Class on the Leibniz vs Clark Correspondence
A dossier of Leibniz’s original works hosted on the Rising Tide Foundation
Venice and Leibniz: A Battle for the Science of Economy
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Here is a Quantum Gravity expert with decades of experience, Prof. Lee Smolin, from NYC, at the Perimeter Institute CA now.
He explicitly refers to Leibniz, a very rare insight in the field.
http://leesmolin.com/videos-and-interview/
Numerous papers, quite technical, refer to Leibniz’s insights. It is clear Bohm and Einstein, even Schroedinger must have read Leibniz. Could it have been too dangerous to state that?
Anyway Prof. Smolin clearly knows the game.
Noting Leibniz’s warning about physical explanations and final causes, walking that tightrope demands agility!
Perimeter is at Waterloo, Ontario, Canada , not California.