G. W. Leibniz
Pre-reading
Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646-1716) was one of the greatest thinkers of the 17th and 18th centuries and is known as the last “universal genius”. To this day he occupies a prominent place in the history of mathematics and the history. What he has composed on the world, God, nature, and the soul is of the most sublime eloquence. In philosophy, Leibniz is most noted for his optimism, i.e. his conclusion that our Universe is, in a restricted sense, the best possible one that God could have created, an idea that was often lampooned by others such as Voltaire. Leibniz, along with René Descartes and Baruch Spinoza, was one of the three great 17th century advocates of rationalism.
Leibniz made an important contribution to the history of the ontological argument. In short, Leibniz’s argument is: 1) God is a being having all perfections. 2) A perfection is a simple and absolute property. 3) Existence is a perfection. 4) If existence is part of the essence of a thing, then it is a necessary being. 5) If it is possible for a necessary being to exist, then a necessary being does exist. 6) It is possible for a being to have all perfections. 7) Therefore, a necessary being (God) does exist.
For the Cosmological Argument, Leibniz says that even in the case of contingent truths or truths of fact there must be a sufficient reason why they are so and not otherwise. But, since each particular truth of fact is contingent upon some other(prior) truth of fact, the reason for the entire series of truths must be located outside the series, and this ultimate reason is what we call God. Leibniz fills out this argument with a fascinating account of the nature of God. So he is able to demonstrate the uniqueness of God, his omniscience, omnipotence, and benevolence from the twin assumptions of the contingency of the world and the Principle of Sufficient Reason.
Prompts for Your Reading
1.What does the author want to tell the reader about God at the beginning?