Work · Rationalism
New Essays on Human Understanding
A dialogue answering Locke's empiricism point by point.
Introduction
Leibniz wrote the work in French in 1703–1704, after Pierre Coste’s French translation of Locke’s Essay had appeared. It is a dialogue between Philalethes, who presents Locke’s views, and Theophilus, who speaks for Leibniz, and follows Locke’s four books chapter by chapter. Against the blank slate Leibniz proposes the image of a block of marble whose veins already outline a figure: innate ideas exist as dispositions. He also introduces “small perceptions”, below the threshold of awareness. Because Locke died in 1704, Leibniz did not publish the work; it appeared only in 1765 and was read in Germany at the time of Kant.
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Connections
Criticizes
- An Essay Concerning Human Understanding1689 · John Locke
More works by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
- 1710Theodicy
- 1714Monadology
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