Abstract

As regards the question of the nature of time, Leibniz's account of monads raises the question of whether they have a temporal order and what this temporal order derives from. His account is generally taken to be an attempt to ground the asymmetric direction of time in a non-temporal sequence, such a chain of causes or reasons. The problem is whether such chains can ground temporal sequences without presupposing what it is that they are supposed to ground. Is his attempt circular, as many commentators have argued? A case can be made that monadic states can be individuated without presupposing time, which would enable him to account for temporal sequences in terms of a non-temporal one