This anthology is about the signal change in Leibniz's metaphysics with his explicit adoption of substantial forms in 1678-79. This change can either be seen as a moment of discontinuity with his metaphysics of maturity or as a moment of continuity, such as a passage to the metaphysics from his last years.

Between the end of his sejour at Paris (November 1676) and the first part of the Hanover period, Leibniz reformed his dynamics and began to use the theory of corporeal substance. This book explores a very important part of the philosophical work of the young Leibniz.

Expertise from around the globe is collated here, including Daniel Garber's work based on the recent publication of Leibniz's correspondence from the late 1690s, examining how the theory of monads developed during these crucial years. Richard Arthur argues that the introduction of substantial forms, reinterpreted as enduring primitive forces of action in each corporeal substance, allows Leibniz to found the reality of the phenomena of motion in force, and thus avoid reducing motion to a mere appearance.

Amongst other themes covered in this book, Pauline Phemister's paper investigates Leibniz's views on animals and plants, highlighting changes, modifications and elaborations over time of Leibniz's views and supporting arguments and paying particular attention to his claim that the future is already contained in the seeds of living things. The editor, Adrian Nita, contributes a paper on the continuity or discontinuity of Leibniz's work on the question of the unity and identity of substance from the perspective of the relation with soul (anima) and mind (mens).

Autorentext
Adrian Nita is Professor of Philosophy at University of Craiova (Romania) and managing editor of the Revue roumaine de philosophie. He is the author of La métaphysique du temps chez Leibniz et Kant (L'Harmattan, Paris, 2008).

Inhalt

Acknowledgement.- Chapter 1. Introduction Leibniz`s metaphysics and adoption of substantial forms; Adrian Nita.- Chapter 2. The Individual in Leibniz's Philosophy, 1663-1686; Lucio Mare and Roger Ariew.- Chapter 3. Substance, unity and identity in early Leibniz's work; Adrian Nita.- Chapter 4. Hylomorphism without Matter? Transtemporal Sameness and the Rehabilitation of Substantial Forms in Leibniz's Theory of Substance; Stefano Di Bella.- Chapter 5. Essential differences. Or an exercise in symptomatic history of philosophy; Enrico Pasini.- Chapter 6. Affects and Activity in Leibniz's De affectibus; Markku Roinila.- Chapter 7. Presumption and Leibniz's Metaphysics of Action, 1678-1680; Andreas Blank.- Chapter 8. Corporeal Substances as Monadic Composites in Leibniz's Later Philosophy; Paul Lodge.- Chapter 9. The Souls of Seeds Pauline Phemister.- Chapter 10. The Relativity of Motion as a Motivation for Leibnizian Substantial Forms; Richard Arthur.- Chapter 11. Monads on my Mind; Daniel Garber.