We live in the best of all possible worlds
Gottfried LeibnizRead
I am so in favor of the actual infinite that instead of admitting that Nature abhors it, as is commonly said, I hold that Nature makes frequent use of it everywhere, in order to show more effectively the perfections of its Author.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Leibniz argues that nature utilizes infinity to demonstrate the greatness of its creator.
In this quote, Gottfried Leibniz challenges the common belief that nature opposes the concept of the infinite. Instead, he suggests that the infinite is not only accepted but is used by nature itself to highlight the perfection and majesty of its creator. This perspective invites contemplation on the relationship between the finite world and its infinite possibilities, suggesting that the divine incorporates infinity into the fabric of reality to reveal deeper truths about existence.
Themes
InfinityNaturePhilosophyDivinePerfection
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophy class discussing the nature of existence and infinity.
More from Gottfried Leibniz
All quotes →It is unworthy of excellent men to lose hours like slaves in the labor of calculation which could be relegated to anyone else if machines were used.
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According to their [Newton and his followers] doctrine, God Almighty wants to wind up his watch from time to time: otherwise it would cease to move. He had not, it seems, sufficient foresight to make it a perpetual motion. Nay, the machine of God's making, so imperfect, according to these gentlemen; that he is obliged to clean it now and then by an extraordinary concourse, and even to mend it, as clockmaker mends his work.
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..This is why the ultimate reason of things must lie in a necessary substance, in which the differentiation of the changes only exists eminently as in their source; and this is what we call God.
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...a distinction must be made between true and false ideas, and that too much rein must not be given to a man's imagination under pretext of its being a clear and distinct intellection.
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These principles have given me a way of explaining naturally the union or rather the mutual agreement [conformité] of the soul and the organic body. The soul follows its own laws, and the body likewise follows its own laws; and they agree with each other in virtue of the pre-established harmony between all substances, since they are all representations of one and the same universe.
Gottfried LeibnizRead
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