Was Leibniz the First Spacetime Structuralist?

Abstract

I argue that the standard interpretation of Leibniz as a relationist about space is mistaken, and defend a reading according to which his correspondence with Samuel Clarke actually suggests that Leibniz holds a view closely resembling modern spacetime structuralism. I distinguish my proposal from Belot's recent reading of Leibniz as a modal relationist, arguing for the superiority of my reading based on the Clarke correspondence and on Leibniz's conception of God's relation to the created world. I note a tension between my proposal and Leibniz's ontology, and suggest that a solution is forthcoming and worth pursuing.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 91,386

External links

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

Through your library

  • Only published works are available at libraries.

Similar books and articles

The Leibniz-Clarke correspondence.Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz & Samuel Clarke - 1956 - In Elizabeth Schmidt Radcliffe, Richard McCarty, Fritz Allhoff & Anand Vaidya (eds.), Late Modern Philosophy: Essential Readings with Commentary. Blackwell.
Leibniz: a collection of critical essays.Harry G. Frankfurt - 1976 - Notre Dame [Ind.]: University of Notre Dame Press.
Leibniz.Harry G. Frankfurt - 1972 - Garden City, N.Y.,: Anchor Books.
The Leibniz-Clarke correspondence: together with extracts from Newton's Principia and Opticks.Samuel Clarke - 1956 - New York: Barnes & Noble. Edited by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Isaac Newton & H. G. Alexander.
Leibniz on Concept and Substance.Michael K. Shim - 2006 - International Philosophical Quarterly 46 (3):309-325.
Leibniz on Hobbes’s Materialism.Stewart Duncan - 2010 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 41 (1):11-18.
Leibniz and Newton on Space.Ori Belkind - 2013 - Foundations of Science 18 (3):467-497.
Leibniz on force and absolute motion.John T. Roberts - 2003 - Philosophy of Science 70 (3):553-573.

Analytics

Added to PP
2012-10-16

Downloads
38 (#410,745)

6 months
5 (#638,139)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Kyle Sereda
University of California, San Diego

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Philosophical papers and letters.Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz & Leroy E. Loemker - 1956 - Chicago,: University of Chicago Press. Edited by Leroy E. Loemker.
Geometric Possibility.Gordon Belot - 2011 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press UK.
Philosophical Papers and Letters.Martha Kneale - 1957 - Philosophical Review 66 (4):574.

View all 10 references / Add more references