From simple substances to the city of God
Follow the Monadology from the definition of a simple substance through perception and the two great principles to the harmony of the whole universe.
An original introduction. This guide accompanies the work; it is neither the complete text nor a translation.
Situating the text
Leibniz wrote this untitled text in French in Vienna in 1714 as a compact statement of his system, adding marginal references to his Theodicy; the Principles of Nature and Grace, written the same year for Prince Eugene of Savoy, covers neighbouring ground. A German translation appeared in 1720 and a Latin one in 1721, but the French original was first printed only in 1840, by Johann Eduard Erdmann. In ninety short numbered paragraphs, the Monadology sets out Leibniz’s metaphysics from its first elements: simple substances without parts, their perceptions and appetitions, the principles of contradiction and sufficient reason, the existence of God, the best of possible worlds, the agreement of soul and body and the city of minds governed by God.
Following the arguments
Windowless monads : Nothing can enter a simple substance from outside, so every change in a monad flows from an internal principle of its own. The mill : Perception cannot be explained by shapes and motions: a thinking machine enlarged to the size of a mill would show only parts pushing one another. Living mirrors : Each monad represents the whole universe from its own point of view, as one town looks quite different from each side from which it is seen.
Continuing the reading
Read paragraphs 1 to 48 slowly, as far as the proofs of God, then the closing paragraphs on minds and the city of God, keeping the Principles of Nature and Grace at hand as a companion text. Leibniz wrote this untitled text in French in Vienna in 1714 as a compact statement of his system, adding marginal references to his Theodicy; the Principles of Nature and Grace, written the same year for Prince Eugene of Savoy, covers neighbouring ground. A German translation appeared in 1720 and a Latin one in 1721, but the French original was first printed only in 1840, by Johann Eduard Erdmann.
The Monadology rebuilds the world from perceiving unities whose agreement comes not from interaction but from the choice of God.
Your turn to think.
- Why does Leibniz infer from the existence of composite things that there must be simple substances without parts?
- How can windowless monads that never act on one another still make up a single ordered world?
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