Leibniz: Creation and Conservation and Concurrence

The Leibniz Review 17:31-60 (2007)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

In this paper I argue that the hoary theological doctrine of divine concurrence poses no deep threat to Leibniz’s views on theodicy and creaturely activity even as those views have been traditionally understood. The first three sections examine respectively Leibniz’s views on creation, conservation and concurrence, with an eye towards showing their sys­tematic compatibility with Leibniz’s theodicy and metaphysics. The fourth section takes up remaining worries arising from the bridging principle that conservation is a continued or continuous creation, and argues that they can be allayed once two readings of the prin­ciple are distinguished. What emerges from the discussion as a whole is, I hope, a clearer picture of Leibniz’s views on the nature of monadic causation, his understanding of the relationship between divine and creaturely activity, and his position with respect to later medieval and early modern debates over secondary causation.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,593

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Leibniz on Constant Creation and Divine Concurrence.Laura A. Mcalinden - 2004 - Dissertation, The University of Wisconsin - Madison
Leibniz on divine concurrence.Sukjae Lee - 2004 - Philosophical Review 113 (2):203-248.
Leibniz on the Labyrinth of Freedom.Jack D. Davidson - 2003 - The Leibniz Review 13:19-43.
Leibniz on the Expression of God.Stewart Duncan - 2015 - Ergo: An Open Access Journal of Philosophy 2:83-103.
Leibniz on Causation and Agency.Julia Jorati - 2017 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
Leibniz on the Labyrinth of Freedom.Jack D. Davidson - 2003 - The Leibniz Review 13:19-43.
Malebranche and Leibniz on the best of all possible worlds.Tad M. Schmaltz - 2010 - Southern Journal of Philosophy 48 (1):28-48.

Analytics

Added to PP
2017-02-15

Downloads
16 (#774,541)

6 months
6 (#202,901)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

The Logic of Leibniz’s Borrowed Reality Argument.Stephen Puryear - 2020 - Philosophical Quarterly 70 (279):350-370.
Du Châtelet on Freedom, Self-Motion, and Moral Necessity.Julia Jorati - 2019 - Journal of the History of Philosophy 57 (2):255-280.
The Heyday of Teleology and Early Modern Philosophy.Jeffrey K. Mcdonough - 2011 - Midwest Studies in Philosophy 35 (1):179-204.

View all 13 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

Leibniz on divine concurrence.Sukjae Lee - 2004 - Philosophical Review 113 (2):203-248.
Leibniz on Divine Concurrence.Sukjae Lee - 2004 - Philosophical Review 113 (2):203-248.

Add more references