Monday, August 31, 2009

Leibniz and Pangloss

Last week we talked about how Pangloss represented the ideas of a great philosopher and mathematician, Gottfried Leibniz. I find this philosophy very interesing and therefore, I decided to look so more about his thoughts related to the optimism and about his believes about God. Actually, when I was reading Candid, and Pangloss was saying how everything in the world has a cause as well as an effect, and nothing could be different because it has already been stablished and it is just perfect, my question was about who made everything that way. Pangloss never attributes this cause to God, he just says it is a cause and effect, but what is the first cause?
Since Pangloss is the representation of Leibniz, I looked up what was that first cause for him and this is what I found:
Leibniz believed that everything in the world consists in monads, which are independent but at the same time, they create a perfect harmony. God created the world so that every monad will adjust perfectly to the rest and this follows the cause and effect thought that Pangloss was talking about. "The appropriate nature of each substance brings it about that what happens to one corresponds to what happens to all the others, without, however, their acting upon one another directly." (Discourse on Metaphysics, XIV) So, the first cause, naturally is God. He also believed that before the creation God made a calculation about every possible world. Following the principle of the best, which states that "God assuredly always chooses the best", He, who is infinitely good, creates the best perfect world.

I commented in Sarah Becky's post

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