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Leibniz on Force and Absolute Motion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

John T. Roberts
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Abstract

I elaborate and defend an interpretation of Leibniz on which he is committed to a stronger space-time structure than so-called Leibnizian space-time, with absolute speeds grounded in his concept of force rather than in substantival space and time. I argue that this interpretation is well-motivated by Leibniz's mature writings, that it renders his views on space, time, motion, and force consistent with his metaphysics, and that it makes better sense of his replies to Clarke than does the standard interpretation. Further, it illuminates the way in which Leibniz took his physics to be grounded in his metaphysics.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 70 , Issue 3 , July 2003 , pp. 553 - 573
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

‡

The author would like to thank Zvi Biener, Joseph Camp, John Earman, Nick Huggett, Jon Johnston, James E. McGuire, Christopher Smeenk, Peter Spillman, and an anonymous referee for helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper.

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