University of Mississippi eGrove Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2016 The Logical Analysis Of Key Arguments In Leibniz And Kant Richard Simpson Martin University of Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd Part of the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Martin, Richard Simpson, "The Logical Analysis Of Key Arguments In Leibniz And Kant" (2016). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 755. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/755 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of eGrove. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. THE LOGICAL ANALYSIS OF KEY ARGUMENTS IN LEIBNIZ AND KANT A Thesis presented in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Philosophy and Religion The University of Mississippi By RICHARD S. MARTIN August 2016 Copyright Richard S. Martin 2016 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT This paper addresses two related issues of logic in the philosophy of Gottfried Leibniz. The first problem revolves around Leibniz’s struggle, throughout the period of his mature philosophy, to reconcile his metaphysics and epistemology with his antecedent theological commitments. Leibniz believes that for everything that happens there is a reason, and that the reason God does things is because they are the best that can be done. But if God must, by nature, do what is best, and if what is best is predetermined, then it seems that there may be no room for divine freedom, much less the human freedom Leibniz wished to prove.