ONT Re: Identity & Teridentity
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I&T. Note 38
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| I have also pointed out that in consequence of imperceptible variations no two
| individuals things could be perfectly alike, and that they must always differ
| more than numerically. This puts an end to the blank tablets of the soul,
| a soul without thought, a substance without action, empty space, atoms,
| and even to portions of matter which are not actually divided, and also
| to absolute rest, completely uniform parts of time or place or matter,
| perfect spheres of the second element which take their origin from
| perfect cubes, and hundreds of other fictions which have arisen
| from the incompleteness of philosophers' notions. They are
| something which the nature of things does not allow of.
| They escape challenge because of our ignorance and our
| neglect of the insensible; but nothing could make them
| acceptable, short of their being confined to abstractions
| of the mind, with a formal declaration that the mind is not
| denying what it sets aside as irrelevant to some present concern.
| On the other hand if we meant literally that things of which we are
| unaware exist neither in the soul nor in the body, then we would fail
| in philosophy as in politics, because we would be neglecting 'to mikron',
| imperceptible changes. Whereas abstraction is not an error as long as one
| knows that what one is pretending not to notice, is 'there'. This is what
| mathematicians are doing when they ask us to consider perfect lines and
| uniform motions and other regular effects, although matter (i.e. the
| jumble of effects of the surrounding infinity) always provides some
| exception. This is done so as to separate one circumstance from
| another and, as far as we can, to trace effects back to their
| causes and to foresee some of their results; the more care
| we take not to overlook any circumstance that we can control,
| the more closely practice corresponds to theory. But only the
| supreme Reason, who overlooks nothing, can distinctly grasp the
| entire infinite and see all the causes and all the results. All
| we can do with infinities is to know them confusedly and at least
| to know distinctly that they are there. Otherwise we shall not
| only judge quite wrongly as to the beauty and grandeur of the
| universe, but will be unable to have a sound natural science
| which explains the nature of things in general, still less
| a sound pneumatology, comprising knowledge of God, souls,
| and simple substances in general.
|
| Leibniz, 'New Essays', p. 57.
|
| G.W. Leibniz, 'New Essays on Human Understanding'
| Peter Remnant & Jonathan Bennet (trans. & ed.),
| Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1996.
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