On Leibniz's rejection of extension as the essence of matter. Leibniz rejected space as a fundamental substance, since in his view it can be infinitely divided Hence he also rejected Descartes' contention that extension is an essential property of matter.
Leibniz instead suggested that force (entelechy) be the essence of matter, but Bertrand Russell did not find this to be be satisfactory either (Chapter VII, “A Critical Exposition of the Philosophy of Leibniz”, George Allen & Unwin). Russell's argument is complicated and, as I understand it, Russell rejected force as well, since Leibniz' concept of space is space relative to another body, while force is absolute but must be measured through motion in space, which is relative. Russell did not come up with a satisfactory alternative solution. Leibniz also rejected action at a distance (gravity). My own view is pragmatic. Leibniz only considered complete concepts (monads), to be real in that they cannot be further subdivided. But we know today that the universe is made up of 12 fundamental particles that cannot be further subdivided. Any corporeal body must be made up of a collection of these, which can individually be considered to be monads, or as a collection, monads within monads. Monads are guided by the pre-established harmony, so I see no problem with this view and using space or extension as a fundamental property. Or with action at a distance, since all monads are interconnected through the supreme monad. Dr. Roger Clough NIST (ret.) 5/28/2013 See my Leibniz site at http://team.academia.edu/RogerClough __________________________________________________________ DreamMail - Enjoy good email software www.dreammail.org -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
