Leibniz’s Philosophy of Logic and Language

This is the second edition of an important introduction to Leibniz’s philosophy of logic and language first published in 1972. It takes issue with several traditional interpretations of Leibniz (by Russell amongst others) while revealing how Leibniz’s thought is related to issues of great interest in current logical theory. For this new edition, the author has added new chapters on infinitesimals and conditionals as well as taking account of reviews of the first edition.

1. Introduction; 2. The principle of substitutivity salva veritate; 3. ARS combinators; 4. Ideas of sensible qualities; 5. Leibniz’s notion of the infinitesimal; 6. Subject and predicates (relational and non-relational); 7. Monads, attributes, accidents, and relations; 8. Hypothetical truths; 9. Necessity and contingency.