LEIBNIZ AND THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING WORLD The New Synthese Historical Library Texts and Studies in the History of Philosophy VOLUME 62 Managing Editor: Simo Knuuttila, University of Helsinki Associate Editors: Daniel Elliot Garber, Princeton University Richard Sorabji, University of London Editorial Consultants: Jan A. Aertsen, Thomas-Institut, Universität zu Köln Roger Ariew, Virginia Polytechnic Institute E. Jennifer Ashworth, University of Waterloo Michael Ayers, Wadham College, Oxford Gail Fine, Cornell University R. J. Hankinson, University of Texas Jaakko Hintikka, Boston University Paul Hoffman, University of California, Riverside David Konstan, Brown University Richard H. Kraut, Northwestern University, Evanston Alain de Libera, Université de Genève John E. Murdoch, Harvard University David Fate Norton, McGill University Luca Obertello, Università degli Studi di Genova Eleonore Stump, St. Louis University Allen Wood, Stanford University The titles published in this series are listed at the end of this volume. LEIBNIZ AND THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING WORLD Edited by PAULINE PHEMISTER University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK and STUART BROWN The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN 978-1-4020-5242-2 (HB) ISBN 978-1-4020-5243-9 (e-book) Published by Springer, P.O. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, The Netherlands. www.springer.com Printed on acid-free paper All Rights Reserved © 2007 Springer No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. TABLE OF CONTENTS Contributors vii Abbreviations ix Preface xv 1. Leibniz and the English-Speaking World: An Introductory Overview 1 Stuart Brown and Pauline Phemister 2. Leibniz’s Debt to Hobbes 19 George MacDonald Ross 3. Two Opponents of Material Atomism: Cavendish and Leibniz 35 Catherine Wilson 4. Dalgarno, Wilkins, Leibniz and the Descriptive Nature of Metaphysical Concepts 51 Andreas Blank 5. “Un de mes amis.”: On Leibniz’s Relation to the English Mathematician and Theologian John Wallis 63 Philip Beeley 6. Leibniz and Robert Boyle: Reason and Faith: Rationalism and Voluntarism 83 Stuart Brown 7. Leibniz and the Cambridge Platonists: The Debate over Plastic Natures 95 Justin E. H. Smith and Pauline Phemister 8. Leibniz’s Nouveaux Essais: A Contest by Dialogue 111 Martha Brandt Bolton 9. Leibniz, Locke, and the Epistemology of Toleration 133 Nicholas Jolley v vi TABLE OF CONTENTS 10. “Is the Logic in London Different from the Logic in Hanover?”: Some Methodological Issues in Leibniz’s Dispute with the Newtonians over the Cause of Gravity 145 Gregory Brown 11. The Harmony of the Leibniz-Berkeley Juxtaposition 163 Stephen H. Daniel 12. Synechism and Monadology: Charles Sanders Peirce’s Reading of Leibniz 181 Evelyn Vargas 13. How did Bertrand Russell make Leibniz into a “Fellow Spirit”? 195 Norma B. Goethe 14. Leibniz and Russell: The Number of All Numbers and the Set of All Sets 207 Ohad Nachtomy 15. Leibniz and the Personalism of L. E. Loemker 219 Robert J. Mulvaney References 231 Index 241 CONTRIBUTORS Philip Beeley lectures in History of Science at the University of Hamburg and is editor of Leibniz’s philosophical writings and correspondence at the University of Münster. Andreas Blank is Visiting Fellow at the Cohn Institute for the History of Philosophy of Science and Ideas at Tel Aviv University, Israel. Martha Brandt Bolton is Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University. Gregory Brown is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Houston, Texas. Stuart Brown is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the Open University. Stephen H. Daniel is Professor of Philosophy at TexasA&MUniversity. Norma B. Goethe is Professor of Philosophy at the School of Philosophy, National University of Cordoba, Argentina. Nicholas Jolley is Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Philosophy Department at the University of California, Irvine. Robert J. Mulvaney is Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of South California. Ohad Nachtomy is Assistant Professor at Bar – Ilan University, Israel. Pauline Phemister is Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. George MacDonald Ross is Senior Lecturer at the University of Leeds and Director of the Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies at the Higher Education Academy. Justin E. H. Smith is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Concordia University, Canada. vii viii CONTRIBUTORS Evelyn Vargas teaches in the Department of Philosophy, Universidad de La Plata, Argentina and is Adjunct Researcher for CONICET (Consejo Nacional de Investi- gaciones Cientificas y Tecnológicas). Catherine Wilson is Professor of Philosophy at the City University of New York and teaches in the Graduate Centre. ABBREVIATIONS A G. W. Leibniz: Sämtliche Schriften und Briefe. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1923–. Referred to by series, volume and page number. AA Kant’s Gesammelte Schriften. Göttingen: Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1902–. Referred to by volume and page number. AF David Hume: Writings on Religion. Ed. by A. Flew. La Salle, IL: Open Court 1992. AG G. W. Leibniz: Philosophical Essays. Ed. and trans. by R. Ariew and D. Garber. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett 1989. AS G. Dalgarno. Ars Signorum, Vulgo Character Universalis et Lingua Philo- sophica. London: J. Hayes 1661. AT Oeuvres de Descartes. Ed. by C. Adam and P. Tannery. Paris: J. Vrin 1964–74. Referred to by volume and page number. BB Die Briefwechsel des Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in der Königlichen Öffentlichen Bibliothek zu Hannover. Ed. by E. Bodemann. Hannover: Hahn 1895. Reprinted Hildesheim: Olms 1966. BH Die Leibniz-Handschriften der Königlichen Öffentlichen Bibliothek zu Hannover. Ed. by E. Bodemann. Hannover: Hahn 1895. Reprinted Hildesheim: Olms 1966. C Opuscules et fragments inédits de Leibniz. Ed. by L. Couturat. Paris: Alcan 1903. Reprinted Hildesheim: Olms 1961. CL C. S. Peirce. Reasoning and the Logic of Things. The Cambridge Conferences of 1898. Ed. by K. L. Ketner and H. Putnam. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press 1992. CN Charles Sanders Peirce. Contributions to “The Nation”. Ed. by K. L. Ketner and J. E. Cook. 4 vols. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press 1975–87. ix x ABBREVIATIONS CP Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce. Ed. by C. Hartshorne, P. Weiss (vols 1–6), and A. Burks (vols 7–8). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press 1931–58. CSM The Philosophical Writings of Descartes. Ed. and trans. by J. Cottingham, R. Stoothoff, and D. Murdoch. 2 vols. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press 1984–85. Referred to by volume and page number. CW I. Newton. The Principia: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. Trans. by I. B. Cohen and A. Whitman. Los Angeles: University of California Press 1999. D G. W. Leibniz. Opera Omnia. Ed. by L. L. Dutens. 6 vols. Geneva 1768. Reprinted Hildesheim: Olms 1989. Referred to by volume and page number. DB George Berkeley: Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher: In focus. Ed. by D. Berman. London and New York: Routledge 1993. E G. W. Leibniz. Opera Philosophica. Ed. by J. E. Erdmann. Berlin: Eichler 1840. EP The Essential Peirce. Selected Philosophical Writings. Ed. by N. Houser and C. J. W. Kloesel. 2 vols. Bloomington: Indiana University Press 1992–98. Referred to by volume and page number. ERC J. Wilkins. An Essay Towards a Real Character: And a Philosophical Language. London: S. Gellibrand 1668. Cited by part, chapter, section and page. Essay J. Locke. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Ed. by P. H. Nidditch. Oxford: Clarendon Press 1975. Referred to by book, chapter, and section. F The Works of George Berkeley. Ed. by A. C. Fraser. 4 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press 1901. Cited by volume and page number. FC Nouvelles lettres et opuscules inédits de Leibniz. Ed. by A. Foucher de Careil. Paris: Durand 1857. Reprinted Hildesheim: Olms 1971. FCO Oeuvres de Leibniz. Ed. by A. Foucher de Careil. 7 vols. Paris: Firmin Didot Frères 1859–75. Referred to by volume and page number. ABBREVIATIONS xi GG J. Toland. Letters to Serena [1704]. Ed. by G. Gawlick. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Friedrich Frommann 1964. GK J. Locke. Epistola de Tolerantia/ A Letter on Toleration. Ed. by J. W. Gough and R. Klibansky. Oxford: Clarendon Press 1968. GM Leibnizens Mathematische Schriften. Ed. by C. I. Gerhardt. 7 vols. Berlin: A. Asher and Halle: H. W. Schmidt 1849–63. Reprinted Hildesheim: Olms 1965. Referred to by volume and page number. GP Die Philosophischen Schriften von Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Ed. by C. I. Gerhardt. 7 vols. Berlin: Weidmann 1875–90. Reprinted Hildesheim: Olms 1965. Referred to by volume and page number. Gr G. W. Leibniz: Textes inédits d’après les manuscrits de la Biblio- thèque provinciale d’Hanovre. Ed. by G. Grua. 2 vols. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France 1948. Referred to by volume and page number. GW Briefwechsel zwischen Leibniz und Christian Wolff. Ed. by C. I. Gerhardt. Halle: Schmidt 1860. Reprinted Hildesheim: Olms 1963. HD The Works of Robert Boyle. Ed. by M. Hunter and E. B. Davis. 14 vols. London: Pickering and Chatto 1999–2000. Referred to by volume and page number. HF G. W. Leibniz. Theodicy: Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil. Ed. by A Farrer. Trans. by E. M. Huggard. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul 1951. Re-published Peru, IL: Open Court 1985. HGA The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence. Ed. and trans. by H. G. Alexander. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press 1956. HH The Correspondence of Henry Oldenburg. Ed. by A. R. Hall and M. B. Hall. 13 vols. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press; London: Mansell; London and Philadelphia: Taylor and Francis, 1965–86 Referred to by volume and page number.