Monday, September 14, 2009

Leipniz/Monadology (1714)

http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/f_leibniz.html

56 Now, this interconnection, or this adapting of all created things to each one, and of each one to all the others, brings it about that each simple substance has relational properties that express all the others, so that each monad is a perpetual living mirror of the universe.

57 And just as the same town when seen from different sides will seem quite different—as though it were multiplied perspectivally—the same thing happens here: because of the infinite multitude of simple substances it's as though there were that many different universes; but they are all perspectives on the same one, differing according to the different points of view of the monads.

58 And that is the way to get the greatest possible variety, but with all the order there could be; i.e. it is the way to get as much perfection as there could be.