Content Analysis of the Demonstration of the Existence of God Proposed by Leibniz in 1666

Krystyna Krauze-Błachowicz

doi:10.18290/rf.2017.65.2-3

Krystyna Krauze-Błachowicz University of Warsaw, Faculty of Philosophy and Sociology

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/rf.2017.65.2-3

Keywords: Leibniz; substance; physics; whole; part; definition

Abstract

Leibniz’s juvenile work De arte combinatoria of 1666 included the “Proof for the Existence of God.” This proof bears a mathematical character and is constructed in line with Euclid’s pattern. I attempted to logically formalize it in 1982. In this text, on the basis of then analysis and the contents of the proof, I seek to show what concept of substance Leibniz used on behalf of the proof. Besides, Leibnizian conception of the whole and part as well as Leibniz’s definitional method have been reconstructed here.

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