Double charnière. Philosophie naturelle, métaphysique et perception dans les PNG

Abstract

To a certain extent, the Principles of Nature and Grace (PNG), of which the title alone already reminds Malebranche, still seem to be animated by the Leibnizian imitation of the ‘Malebranche-Limbo’ (the descending movement and ascending from God to creation, then horizontally to creatures, and then going back to souls, spirits and the kingdom of grace). Here we will highlight, on the contrary, the main aspects by which Leibniz diverges from it in the PNG and in fact abandons it altogether. We will also analyze the meaning of the bipartition of Leibnizian writing in two sections, ‘physics’ and ‘metaphysics’, on the background on Leibniz’s classification of sciences and theory of the substance, and from there we will move to the consideration of the different levels of perception that Leibniz’s substances present.

English title:  Double hinge. Natural philosophy, metaphysics and perception in the PNGs