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ethanwheel's review against another edition
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
3.25
Despite being wrong in basically every way, I find myself delighted at this goofy man and his world of monads. Leibnizian Optimism is a nice place to be. I certainly hope no one will come along and completely disrupt Leibniz's Idealism.
axelpin's review against another edition
challenging
funny
informative
mysterious
relaxing
fast-paced
3.0
david_rhee's review against another edition
3.0
(My primary focus centered on the correspondence between Leibnitz and Arnauld for I was reading it for the first time. The Discourse and Monadology were rereads from a few years ago.)
I was planning to make 2015 the year of the novel, but I broke down and decided to intersperse the lineup with some philosophy miscellany. From 1686-90, Wilhelm Gottfried Leibnitz and Antoine Arnauld had a back-and-forth via a series of letters. A certain Count Ernst of Hessen-Rheinfels seems to be some kind of liaison between the two. Leibnitz wants to pass along the general tenets of his metaphysics under another set of eyes, but M. Arnauld grows a bit alarmed at the potential dangers of Leibnitz's speculations and their conflicts with the Catholic faith. What follows is a tense, somewhat hurried, and volatile exchange between the two minds. The Leibnitzian principles often pop up, pre-established harmony, optimism, and plenitude regarding the divine purpose. Their discussion on possibility as it relates to human freedom and divine will is the most interesting part. Because this type of topic can easily sprawl into a quickly widening landscape, Leibnitz and Arnauld had to stop often to clarify defining terms. It was almost a letdown when the discussion shifted to the concept of the soul. Absurd ideas surrounding the beliefs of an "anatomical soul" test the reader's patience, but Leibnitz's efforts to establish the soul as a kind of integrating influence over the body are worth attention.
I was planning to make 2015 the year of the novel, but I broke down and decided to intersperse the lineup with some philosophy miscellany. From 1686-90, Wilhelm Gottfried Leibnitz and Antoine Arnauld had a back-and-forth via a series of letters. A certain Count Ernst of Hessen-Rheinfels seems to be some kind of liaison between the two. Leibnitz wants to pass along the general tenets of his metaphysics under another set of eyes, but M. Arnauld grows a bit alarmed at the potential dangers of Leibnitz's speculations and their conflicts with the Catholic faith. What follows is a tense, somewhat hurried, and volatile exchange between the two minds. The Leibnitzian principles often pop up, pre-established harmony, optimism, and plenitude regarding the divine purpose. Their discussion on possibility as it relates to human freedom and divine will is the most interesting part. Because this type of topic can easily sprawl into a quickly widening landscape, Leibnitz and Arnauld had to stop often to clarify defining terms. It was almost a letdown when the discussion shifted to the concept of the soul. Absurd ideas surrounding the beliefs of an "anatomical soul" test the reader's patience, but Leibnitz's efforts to establish the soul as a kind of integrating influence over the body are worth attention.
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