Customer Reviews (1)

Miraculous
It always puzzled me that we study Voltaire's literary attack on Leibniz's ideas, but we never discuss the ideas Voltaire was responding to. We study forms of mathematics which were designed to argue against Leibniz's more radical mathematical ideas, but we aren't led through the history of how the ideas were developed. I have become convinced that it is not by accident. Leibniz was absurdly ahead of his time in the early 18th century and he is still ahead of our time today. These translations give us a small glimpse of this genius which seems to permeate all important fields of life.

These earlier works show Leibniz in a more confident phase-where he believed his ideas could change the entire world in his lifetime. His political theory, philosophy and mathematics (we don't use Newton's esoteric calculus we use Leibniz's) did achieve this, but it took much longer-and sadly much is still not known to today's generation of university students and their teachers. This well-done book provides a peak into Leibniz's revolutionary world of conceptual truth. ... Read more

Book Description
Leibniz's political and ethical writing long has been neglected, and with this new edition Professor Riley makes available the most representative pieces from Leibniz's political theory.This new edition, specially prepared for this series, is the first to make a considerable number of Leibniz's writings available in English, and includes three previously unpublished manuscripts, a selection of political letters, an introduction, notes, and a critical biography. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Riley from someone who has studied under the Riley
Patrick Riley takes Leibniz to a new Level.As a student of Riley I learned first hand what this book was all about.Exploration of Leibniz both as a philosopher and as a jurisprude were taken into acount in this anthology.This is an excelent companion to his book "Leibniz' Universal Jurisprudence: Justice As the Charity of the Wise."The previously unpublished (and untraslated) works present in this anthology show Leibniz's reaction to rationalist and theological determinism, as well as complement Leibniz's own Theodecy.This is a must buy for anyone who wants to Learn about Leibniz's philosophy, or just read it for fun ... Read more

Book Description
For this new edition, Roger Ariew has adapted Samuel Clarke's edition of 1717, modernizing it to reflect contemporary English usage. Ariew's introduction places the correspondence in historical context and discusses the vibrant philosophical climate of the times.Appendices provide those selections from the works of Newton that Clarke frequently refers to in the correspondence. A bibliography is also included. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Great working translation of key works.
Hackett offers once again an inexpensive translation in lucid prose.This volume features the important shorter works of Leibniz's corpus, including the "Monadology," and "Discourse on Metaphysics," together with Leibniz's correspondence with his contemporaries.Each of the works is prefaced by a short introduction, helpful for placing it in context. Editorial footnotes helpfully point out the nuance of Leibniz's language.Overall, great working translation for philosophical study or research.

Useful, flawed
Garber and Ariew did us a great service in pulling these materials together in a single inexpensive volume in English. Their choices for inclusion are terrific. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for their translations. Especially in the translations from French there are dozens of errors, many of them fairly serious. If you would like a list of them - or of the ones I have noticed

A necessary compendium ofa formidable oeuvre
The greatness of Leibniz is undermined by the vastness of his oeuvre.It stands of no single definitive works.Like the monads that he espoused, Leibniz's writings are here, there and everywhere, each bit mirroring thewhole--the universe that Leibniz envisioned.Short of an encyclopedia ofLeibniz's oeuvre, this book can serve as a nearly-comprehensive collectionof the 'goods.'The major pieces are kept in their entirety.Includedwith the likes of 'Discourse on Metaphysics,' 'New System,' 'Specimen ofDynamics,' and 'The Monadology' are formidable chunks of Leibniz's lettersand occasional pieces.

To do justice to Leibniz is to immerse oneselfin this great labrynth of thought.Perhaps one day a Renaissance ofLeibnizian studies will flourish on the account of this collection. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Excellent, but with caveat
I have nothing to add to the previous reviews concerning the importance of Leibniz's thought as expressed in this book. I would like to add this caveat, however: this translation is not a critical edition. Leibniz quotes numerous passages in Greek and Latin (he was enormously erudite), but these passages are not translated in this edition. Neither does the editor/translator identify where the quoted passages are from (this would be useful if one wanted to look up the original context of a passage that Leibniz is quoting). Fortunately, the quotations are usually not necessary to understand the argument, which is somewhat repetitive in any case.

The other disadvantage of this volume is that the index contains only proper names and not ideas. This is unfortunate, since much of the work is not clearly organized and the discussion of a given issue is often scattered throughout the book.

But since this is the best edition of the Theodicy currently available in English, one has to live with these disadvantages.

This is the motherload!
This, and other of Leibniz's writings are, ..... I don't know. Profound? That is an understatement! Paradigm shifting? At least a few? These are some of the most powerful and poignant thoughts put into writing. This is the man who discovered the calculus with meaning (as opposed to Newton, who also gets credit, but had a different basis).

Leibniz gets some bad neglect in history, largely because Voltaire undermined his thoughts by creating a ridiculous straw-man of Leibniz's ideas - maybe Voltaire just couldn't grasp it! It is some of the hardest writing to read, especially since there was nothing before this like it. (for this reason, I recommend, if new to Leibniz, to NOT read an introduction or such. Many "scholars" still give Voltaire's slant on Leibniz. Read for yourself and then judge).

For hundreds of years Leibniz was put on the back shelf because Newton reigned supreme. But guess what? It turns out that Leibniz was right in his charges against Newton. The death of classical physics and the rise of the quantum started with Leibniz - it just took the world a while to catch up.

Also, if you have to deal with someone who gives that trite argument "If God is all powerful, If God is all good, How is there evil in the world," Plop, this book on his/her lap. Why people expect and easy and quick answer to this question is beyond me. Leibniz's answer, his treatment of free will and determinism, the soul and the individual - truly, if grasped, will change some part of your mind for the better.

Light years ahead of its time
_Theodicy_ by Leibniz is amazingly relevant and readable considering how long ago it was written.This book is far better than many other works of philosophy which came much later.Very few authors have been able to tackle the problem of the relationship between the existence of evil and the existence of God with as much skill and clarity as Leibniz.The issues discussed in this book are still very relevant today, and the questions concerning evil and the existence of God still have not been answered.That is what makes this work so timeless; if I had been told that it was written yesterday I would have believed it, so relevant are the questions and so readable is the style.This is a must-read for even the most modern and scientifically-minded philosophers.Leibniz adresses questions that are completely independent of science, and can never be answered through science alone.The only way to solve the ancient problem of evil is to continue to think about it in the same way as Leibniz, even though we may never find a solid answer.

Good argument hidden in an overly long book.
Leibniz's argument for the origin of evil in human freedom is perhaps the most famous of all the theodicies, and obviously if you want to read the source then this is it. The argument is easy to grasp and convincing - which made me wonder exactly why it required a book of this length (about 400 pages). The answer is that Leibniz sets out his argument within the first fifty pages and the rest of the book is devoted to meeting arguments that other thinkers (particularly Bayle) had made about theodicy. Leibniz really over did the treatment of Bayle's objections, to such a point that Leibniz himself admitted around page 300 that he was growing tired of refuting Bayle.

Fortunately this edition contains almost all of the original appendicies (bar one which set out the formal argument in Scholastic Latin), the first of which is the main arguments of the book stripped down into analytic logical arguments. This takes only 9 pages and to be honest, it's almost worth skipping the rest of the book and just reading this, as it contains all the important points. At the very least I find it very useful when I want to come back and remind myself what was said. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Review of Metaphysics, published by Thomson Gale on December 1, 2006. The length of the article is 824 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm. Confessio Philosophi, Papers Concerning the Problem of Evil, 1671-1678.(Book review)
Author: Timothy Crockett
Publication: The Review of Metaphysics (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 60Issue: 2Page: 411(3)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1842 edition by Charpentier, Paris. ... Read more

Product Description
This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1859 edition by Firmin Didot frères, fils et Cie, Paris. ... Read more

Product Description
This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1875 edition by Weidmann, Berlin. ... Read more

Product Description
This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1854 edition by Ladrange, Paris. ... Read more