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Leibniz and Prime Matter
- Journal of the History of Philosophy
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 53, Number 3, July 2015
- pp. 435-460
- 10.1353/hph.2015.0059
- Article
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I argue that the prime matter that Leibniz posits in every created monad is understood by him to be a mere defect or negation, and not something real and positive. Further, I argue that Leibniz’s talk of prime matter in every created monad is inspired by the thirteenth-century doctrine of spiritual matter, but that such talk is simply one way in which Leibniz frames a point that he frequently makes elsewhere—namely, that each creaturely essence incorporates a limitation that is the ultimate source of an original imperfection that affects the creature from the first moment of its existence.