The Leibniz Review

Abstract: The mature Leibniz frequently uses the phrase «moral necessity» in the context of discussing free choice. In this essay I provide a seventeenth century geneology of the phrase. I show that the doctrine of moral necessity was developed by scholastic philosophers who sought to retain a robust notion of freedom while purging bruteness from their systems. Two sorts of bruteness were special targets. The first is metaphysical bruteness, according to which contingent events or states of affairs occur without a sufficient explanation. The second is semantic bruteness according to which a proposition can be true without a truthmaker. Denying either sort of bruteness was thought by some to raise problems for freedom. Defenders of moral necessity thought the notion solved these problems without having to invoke bruteness.

Abstract: Leibniz’s «De incerti aestimatione», which contains his solution to the «division problem», has not received much attention, let alone much appreciation. This is surprising because it is in this work that the definition of probability in terms of equally possible cases appears for the first time. The division problem is used to establish and test probability theory; it can be stated as follows: if two players agree to play a game in which one has to win a certain number of rounds in order to win the pool, but if they break the game off before either of them has won the required number of rounds, how should the pool be distributed? Our article has two aims: it provides the readers with the first published English translation of «De incerti aestimatione», and it also gives them a brief commentary that explains Leibniz’s philosophical and mathematical concepts…

Número 13 (December 2003):

Articles:

• Andreas Blank: Incomplete Entities, Natural Non-separability, and Leibniz’s Response to François Lamy’s «De la Conoissance de soi-même»
• Jack D. Davidson: Leibniz on the Labyrinth of Freedom: Two Early Texts
• Justin E.H. Smith: Confused Perception and Corporeal Substance in Leibniz

Leibniz Texts:

• Patrick Riley: Leibniz’s «Meditation sur la notion commune de la justice», 1703-2003
• Philip Beeley: Leibniz on the Limits of Human Knowledge: With a Critical Edition of «Sur la calculabilité du nombre de toutes les connaisances possibles» and English Translation

Book Reviews:

• Marcelo Dascal: Ex pluribus unum? Patterns in 522 + Texts of Leibniz’s «Sämtliche Schriften und Briefe VI,4»
• Massimo Mugnai: G.W. Leibniz, The Labyrinth of the Continuum: Writings on the Continuum Problem, 1672-1686, Translated, Edited, and with an Introduction by Richard T.W. Arthur
• Cees Leijenhorst: Christia Mercer’s Leibniz’s Metaphysics: Its Origins and Development
• Patrick Riley: G.W. Leibniz, «Sämtliche Schriften und Briefe, Reihe IV (Politische Schriften), Band 5»

News from the Leibniz-Gesellschaft

News from the Spanish Leibniz Society

Web Resources on Leibniz

Recents works on Leibniz

Acknowledgements, Subscription Information, Abbreviations

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Número 12 (December 2002):

Leibniz Texts:

• Philip Beeley: Leibniz on Wachter’s Elucidarius cabalisticus: A Critical Edition of the so-called ‘Réfutation de Spinoza’
• Donald Rutherford: Leibniz’s «On Generosity,» With English Translation

Articles:

• Samuel Levey: Leibniz and the Sorites

Book Reviews:

• Massimo Mugnai: Jean-Baptiste Rauzy’s La doctrine Leibnizienne de la verité: Aspects logiques et ontologiques
• Jean-Baptiste Rauzy: Reply to Massimo Mugnai’s Review of La doctrine Leibnizienne de la verité
• Cees Leijenhorst: Christia Mercer’s Leibniz’s Metaphysics: Its Origins and Development
• Christia Mercer: Reply to Cees Leijenhorst’s Review of Leibniz’s Metaphysics
• Ohad Nachtomy: Reginald Osburn Savage’s Real Alternatives: Leibniz’s Metaphysics of Choice
• Reginald O. Savage: Reply to Ohad Nachtomy’s Review of Real Alternatives
• Michael J. Murray: E.J. Kremer and M. J. Latzer (eds.), The Problem of Evil in Early Modern Philosophy
• Patrick Riley: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Sämtliche Schriften und Briefe: Allgemeiner Politischer und Historischer Briefwechsel, Siebzehnter Band
• Catherine Wilson: François Duchesneau’s Les Modèles du vivant de Descartes à Leibniz

Discussion:

• Martin Schönfeld: Christian Wolff and Leibnizian Monads
• J.E.H. Smith: German Scholarship on Leibniz, 1900-1945

News from the Leibniz-Gesellschaft

Recents works on Leibniz

Acknowledgements, Subscription Information, Abbreviations