Structure and Simplicity in Leibniz

• Thesis title in Czech: Struktura a jednoduchost u Leibnize
• Thesis title in English: Structure and Simplicity in Leibniz
• Key words: Leibniz|struktura|singularita|pluralita|multiplicita|reprezentace|vnější a vnitřní determinace|reálná a sémantická determinace|homogenita a heterogenita
• English key words: Leibniz|structure|singularity|plurality|multiplicity|representation|extrinsic and intrinsic determination|real and semantic determination|homogeneity and heterogeneity
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2016/2017
• Thesis type: diploma thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Institute of Philosophy and Religious Studies (21-UFAR)
• Supervisor: doc. Mgr. Jan Palkoska, Ph.D.
• Author: hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept.
• Date of registration: 19.08.2017
• Date of assignment: 20.08.2017
• Administrator's approval: not processed yet
• Confirmed by Study dept. on: 12.09.2017
• Date and time of defence: 10.09.2018 09:00
• Date of electronic submission: 08.08.2018
• Date of proceeded defence: 10.09.2018
• Submitted/finalized: committed by student and finalized
• Opponents: prof. James Hill, Ph.D.

Guidelines

Propounded thesis aims to present Leibniz’s monadic system as the simplest representable structure. In the course of our enquiry we will develop conceptual tools – the notion of structure loaded with both philosophical and logical import being the most prominent among them –accountable for perplexing features common to all the representations of the monadic system evidenced in contemporary Leibnizian literature as well as in Leibniz’s original writings. Methodological preoccupation of this enterprise commits us not to delve deeper into chains of deductive reasoning spread throughout Leibnizian corpus in a search for some (ultimate or transitional) grounding of his thoughts: it is the structure of monad itself as represented in its various illustrations, depictions and exemplifications which is the main resource of our interpretive approach. The quest would be to work out independent notions of structure, simplicity and representation capable of determining an extent to which logical formalization might be useful in delivering grasp of Leibniz’s ontology and presenting therewith the monadic system itself as testifying the very limits of conceivability.

References

[L] Philosophical Papers and Letters. Edited and translated by Leroy E. Loemker. 2d ed., Dordrect: D. Reidel, 1969.

[DMG] The Philosophical Works of Leibnitz.Edited and translated by Georges Martin Duncan. 2d ed., New Haven: The Tuttle, Morehouse& Taylor Company, 1908

[NE] New Essays on Human Understanding. Translated by Peter Remnant and Jonathan Bennett. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.

[Th] Theodicy: Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom on Man and the Origin of Evil. Translated by E. M. Huggard. La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1985.

[G] Die philosophischen Schriften. 7 vols. Edited by C. I. Gerhardt. Berlin, 1875–90. Reprint, Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1965.

Boolos, George, 1984, “To Be Is To Be a Value of a Variable (or to Be Some Values of Some Variables)”, Journal of Philosophy, 81(8): 430–50; repr. in Boolos 1998a. doi:10.2307/2026308

Cotnoir, A. J., 2013, ‘Strange Parts: The Metaphysics of Non-classical Mereologies’, Philosophy Compass, 8/9: 834–845.

Koslicki, K., 2008, The Structure of Objects, Oxford: Oxford University Press.


Laycock, H., 2006, Words without Objects, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Laycock, H., 2004, “Variables, Generality and Existence”, in Paolo Valore (ed.), Topics on General and Formal Ontology, Milano: Polimetrica, 27–52.

Lewis, D., 1993,‘Mathematics Is Megethology’, Philosophia Mathematica, 3: 3–23.

Mates, Benson, 1986. The Philosophy of Leibniz: Metaphysics and Language, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Russell, Bertrand, 1937. A Critical Exposition of the Philosophy of Leibniz, 2nd ed., London: Allen & Unwin.