Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
so we came to these mysterious points , that is to say contingent troops are fully determined whereas they are supposed to be precisely contingent propositions , though this is a paradox of course, to resolve this problem, you have to consider we have to to come to metaphysics.
you have to consider that according to Leibniz, the understanding of god contains an infinite number of possible worlds, in contemporary philosophy, we would talk of the model real reason , contemporary philosophers are talking of it model realism, but it's far beyond as you see.
the understanding of god contains an infinite possible worlds, and in so far this is not the most important but i tell you, in so far that our god is possessing all perfections, of course including wisdom, he chose to create the best world, that is the sense of Leibniz optimum, but that is not our point ,the point is understanding of god contains an infinite number of possible worlds, and we must refer to this global material.
all those possible worlds we must refer to these this global material contained in the supreme intelligence, in order to comprehend the model statues, of the propositions, concerning created things, existing beings to understand their model stages.
we have to refer to all those possible worlds contained in the understanding of god ,one important point, is that according to Leibniz, it would be wrong for the Descartes， it would be wrong for the capital accord Leibniz and almost all the philosophers before the Leibniz.
they got is some exception here, but according to Leibniz , the human intelligence, and the design intelligence , they share the same logic, they are sharing the same logic and to be more specific the same modal logic, it's common both to you man and to design intelligence , the most important results.
of course in the for modalities what is known since aristotle as the modern square, i don't know if in chinese you're talking about the modern square now, it doesn't matter in fact the modern square is this one i will show you.
the definitions of what is impossible necessary and contingent , since aristotle in western philosophy, we design it we are talking about this at the model square, i wish to a letter, i will turn later to the innovation of Leibniz introduced in the theory of modalities, i will turn to it later because Leibniz introduced a very important innovation in the theory of modalities, but first you have to remember those for definitions.
i'm not very good at powerpoint, so i did not succeed to merge the square see if somebody perhaps one day, so you can present it as a square, but i can't with powerpoint possible what does not imply contradiction impossible, what implies contradiction necessary.
these definitions are also relevant for Leibniz okay , necessary the contradictory opposite of which is impossible contingent, the contradictory a positive which is possible, so if you refer to these for modalities, you and to the understanding of god, you will understand how a proposition can both be entirely determine it and contingent.
so i come back to my problem, if the world, and all beings inside of it, if the world is completely determined , how can Leibniz support that the actions of adam, caesar or anybody else are contingent , the answer was that the contract contradictory opposite, is possible , that is to say it is possible that adam does not commit sin or that caesar does not cross the rubicon, but only not as a vague proposition.
we eliminated this point of view, it's possible only in another world, so even if they are completely determined, contingent propositions are still contingent, because their contradictory opposite is possible in another world, therefore, and this is an important point i would like you to remember this , contingency according to Leibniz.
it's a property of the whole world to understand the contingency of the actions in this world, you have to consider the contingency of the whole world, so the fifth point concerns the possible worlds, but there is something else, there is something else ,finally all the events which a cure in the same world.
they are possible together , that is to say according to Leibniz, they are integrated into relations of common possibility not only possibility, but common possibility, it's just means that they are possible together, one certain events, i'm not come possible simultaneously, i can't be here and in my room at the same time, where certain events are not conceivable compossible symmetric senior simultaneously.
but only happen successively, they're compulsively tea is narrative and that is fROM late in its point of view, what defines time only as a certain order time, is only a certain order within the relationships of compressibility. we will come back to this later.
i would say something about time later, so this is a short presentation of you see is a very demanding conception of rationality by Leibniz, especially of contingency, you have to remember all these in order to realize how important his rule,, will be in the modern theories of fiction , everything comes from Leibniz.
it's every modern theory of fiction, we is referring to Leibniz , in my study i will study the texts in which Leibniz focuses on sixteen narratives, it will be easier for earth, and besides this is a dimension we discovered by studying fiction according to abstraction.
so i will only consider other text on effective narratives, and specially on narratives that presents a character of similarity, that is to say fictions that constitute a genuine system of facts , indeed their examination is linked two observations concerning the outdated possibilities based upon, which the world chosen by god, is divided.
this is how owns he has indeed identified the principles of his theory of contingency, which i similarly here , Leibniz very repeatedly, makes the reference to novels, he repeatedly, makes reference to novels , why?
in order to criticize necessary and doctrines and daughter to provide a preliminary understanding of the status of perceiving worlds.
so he is referring to novels with two goals, the first one, first goal is to criticize spinoza or according to him descartes necessary and doctrines , what does it mean , theories that is served that all possibilities really a cure all the possibilities really a cure for real.in reality those are necessary and doctrines, you see, there is no conduct contradictory opposite that would not a cure, every possibility, a cure this is a necessary and doctrine.
the second goal by referring to novels is to help us understand the status of those possible worlds, it's not very easy to understand that there are other possible worlds in the understanding of god, so Leibniz is using the example of novels in order to make us understand this point, and i myself will successily considers those two goals.
novels against this city and this is our principles, and then novels narrative fictions as to instruments to make us understand the possible worlds, there is something else , and after all it was quite useful to tell few words about Leibniz contributions to 伽利略, and know the reason to the very special importance of nervous in Leibniz.
there is another reason which to the material form to the material novels, they are given in books,that is to say for Leibniz in combinations of written science ,combinations of written science, that according to Leibniz, it's transpose able to knowledge , that is another reason why he's very interested in novels, they are written there are combinations of swritten science and rules combinations are according to Leibniz translatable to knowledge .
for instance, the hypothesis on signifer systems Leibniz to the id , that at the very end of progress in knowledge , it is possible i quote, that everything gets spent and we cannot even make a novel, before another one is already completed , or any for or form any new humorous.
so novels reveal the power of combinations in order to make you understand, this i choose an example , but not in Leibniz, it's in one of the most important writer in the twentieth century, perhaps you know him, i guess you do Borges, he was a very great reader and knew Leibniz very well , and Borges wrote a remarkable short story which detail is the library of Babel.
have you read this closures the library of Babel, it's incredible i will show you a page of this text, and you will understand its very close two the conceptions of Leibniz, so this is norges, a world of signs, he died thirty years ago, and please read this text and this is a a good way for you to understand the way Leibniz is representing the world to himself, a library, and of genius reduces that the library is total.
that its bookshelves contain all possible combinations of the twenty two orthographic symbols, a number of which though unimaginabty vast is not infinite, that is all that is able to be expressed in every language, so the novel is about these incredible library, which is in a tower in an enormous store, and it was about to Borges's Leibniz is describing it.
what does it mean , the details history of the future, the autobiographies, the faithful catalogue of the library, thousands and thousands of faith catalogues the proof of the fallacy of those files catalogs, a proof of the face of the true catalog, the true story of your death, the translation of every book into every language, interpolation of every book into on books.
so all possible combinations would be contained in this library, that is a good way to understand the power of science written.
science for Leibniz it himself, in fact Borges wrote an article on Leibniz theory of contingency for instance, so this is the reason why novels are so important for Leibniz, i won't develop these beautiful reference for now, i simply stress the fact that precisely the exhaustion of the book form, does not signify for Leibniz, the actualization of all the possibilities, that it expresses this is different.
so first point novels britain fictions narratives, again necessity, because i repeat, even if the world is fully determined Leibniz research, it is contingent, it is very remarkable that repeatedly , the pretty seeds on of necessary, Leibniz design so on , to say these challenging the existence of unfulfilled possibilities , this criticism leads Leibniz to associate the argument of novels.
