The Agreement between Leibniz’s Monadology and Observed Phenomena
While reading Gottfried Leibniz's "Monadology," I was struck by the way his explanation of the structure of the physical world agrees with the phenomena observed in science, mathematics and nature.
I will begin by showing the agreement between Leibniz and science. Second, I will show his agreement with mathematics. Lastly, and through use of the previous two arguments, I will show Leibniz's agreement with observations of nature.
Throughout the history of science, investigations of physical objects have shown them to be divisible into portions of ever decreasing size. Biologists discovered that living organisms are made up of cells. They then discovered that cells contain organelles. Through the years the finally came to the finding that atoms are the final building blocks of living creatures. Chemists and physicists discovered that all matter is composed of atoms. Atoms, in turn, were shown to be composed of a positively charged nucleus and a negatively charged shell. The nucleus was then shown to be made of protons and neutrons. The negatively charged shell was shown to be composed of electrons. These small, seemingly indivisible, particles were more recently discovered to be composed of even smaller particles, quarks and leptons. These newly discovered particles each have many varieties, or "flavors." Along with these tiny bits of matter are other particles as well: photons, muons, mesons, bosons, gluons, etc... Even these specks have subtypes and varieties. As if this wasn't enough, quarks and leptons are suspected to have even smaller components. "Where does it all end?" an exasperated reader might ask. Most physicists will admit that they don't ...
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...ve in common: dualism and unity at the same time. This may seem like a contradiction but it is demonstrated easily with an example: light and dark are dual, that is they are separate and opposing, but they are also unified in that they cannot exist without each other. Light isn't light without dark and vice versa. Only by comparison with the other can there be a conception of both. There are numerous examples of this from human experience: night and day, matter and void, good and evil, heat and cold, order and chaos, infinite divisibility and self-similarity. I feel that this is the essence of the universe, an opposition and togetherness at the same time.
This is why I feel Leibniz had a good grasp of what is going on. He understood, at least in part, these contradictions and agreements. Although he may not have been totally right, he did have a good beginning.
. She claims that the proceeding force connected with lady as-witch in this combination creative ability handles the problem on the power that surpasses embellishment and design the particular discernment connected with witches and witchcraft throughout. Looking at these kind of queries could encourage selection that the mention of their imagination and prejudices attached to the particular "lady as-witch" idea that the current strain on females building in popularity can easily trigger anger these days. She slyly evaluates having less adequate traditional beliefs with regards to the part women performed inside creating our community, at a variety of instances.
Upon Googling “witch” almost all the images are of women riding on broomsticks. This is today’s pop culture view of witches, however it has it’s roots in Early Modern stereotypes of witchcraft. It was probably easy to find the old, ugly hag down the street and accuse her of being a witch, but there is more to the story. In the case of Françette Camont, the stereotype of witches helped to put suspicion on her, however she wasn’t convicted because of the stereotypes that applied to her, but rather it was personal feelings toward her and a needed catalyst for the trial to start that led to her execution and the execution of many other witches.
Filmmaking and cinematography are art forms completely open to interpretation in a myriad ways: frame composition, lighting, casting, camera angles, shot length, etc. The truly talented filmmaker employs every tool available to make a film communicate to the viewer on different levels, including social and emotional. When a filmmaker chooses to undertake an adaptation of a literary classic, the choices become somewhat more limited. In order to be true to the integrity of the piece of literature, the artistic team making the adaptation must be careful to communicate what is believed was intended by the writer. When the literature being adapted is a play originally intended for the stage, the task is perhaps simplified. Playwrights, unlike novelists, include some stage direction and other instructions regarding the visual aspect of the story. In this sense, the filmmaker has a strong basis for adapting a play to the big screen.
First we will consider the assigned baseball scenario under Leibniz’s system of metaphysics. In the baseball scenario, the aggregate of the player, bat, pitch, swing and all the other substances in the universe are one and all contingent. There are other possible things, to be sure; but there are also other possible universes that could have existed but did not. The totality of contingent things, the bat, the player, etc., themselves do not explain themselves. Here Leibniz involves the principle of reason; “there can be found no fact that is true or existent, or any true proposition, without there being a sufficient reason for its being so and not otherwise.” There must be, Leibniz insists, something outside the totality of contingent things (baseball games) which explains them, something which is itself necessary and therefore requires no explanation other than itself.
walk like men in the world if he himself was not a true man. Therefore
To realize the vision of the play, the script, set-up, costumes, stagecraft, sound design, and acting have to communicate a unified message with which the audience will relate. The script will be tailored to ensure that the audience can understand the play as it proceeds. This is in terms of the language and terms used. Though the language will not be modern, it will be English that can be understood by the audience. This will be English of antique England as it will give the play a feeling of ancient times. The scriptwriter will carry out research on the level of understanding the local people will have of ancient English so as to ascertain that the script matches this level. Although many plays of that era were sung and accompanied by dance, this play will be acted out with spoken word rather than songs. This is because speaking will ensure the audience hears the conversations as they go on and that they understand. This is ...
Metaphysics is the search for an ultimate principle by which all real things and relations are ordered. It formulates fundamental statements about existence and change. A reversible (absolute) causality is thought to be the ultimate of reality. It is argued that a real (causal) process relating changes of any nature (physical, mental) and any sort (quantitative, qualitative, and substantial) reverses the order of its agency (action, influence, operation, producing): real causation must run in the opposite direction, or change to the opposite effect. A reversible process is a cyclical process, and all cyclical processes are reversible. The world is becoming active because it produces reversible processes; reversible processes organize the world. The world is the totality of interrelated cyclic processes occurring with all kinds of agents (objects, substances, and things).
Film scholars around the world agree that all genres of film are part of the “genre cycle”. This cycle contains four different stages that a specific genre goes through. These stages are: primitive, classic, revisionist, and parody. Each stage that the genre goes through brings something different to that genre’s meaning and what the audience expects. I believe that looking at the horror genre will be the most beneficial since it has clearly gone through each stage.
Toivo, Raisa M. ‘Women at Stake. Interpretations of Women’s Role in Witchcraft and Witch-Hunts since the early 20th century to the present’ Australia: University of New South Wales, 2005.
Following Abigail’s behavior in the forest, the evil in her becomes even more evident throughout the play, supporting her devil figure characterization. In Act One, after Betty wakes up from her “illness” Betty says that sh...
The play is based loosely on fact but more importantly it is set in a
Since its inception, science relied on predictability and order. The true beauty of science was its uncanny ability to find patterns and regularity in seemingly random systems. For centuries the human mind as easily grasped and mastered the concepts of linearity. Physics illustrated the magnificent order to which the natural world obeyed. If there is a God he is indeed mathematical. Until the 19th century Physics explained the processes of the natural world successfully, for the most part. There were still many facets of the universe that were an enigma to physicists. Mathematicians could indeed illustrate patterns in nature but there were many aspects of Mother Nature that remained a mystery to Physicists and Mathematicians alike. Mathematics is an integral part of physics. It provides an order and a guide to thinking; it shows the relationship between many physical phenomenons. The error in mathematics until that point was linearity. “Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line.” - Benoit Mandlebrot. Was it not beyond reason that a process, which is dictated by that regularity, could master a world that shows almost no predictability whatsoever? A new science and a new kind of mathematics were developed that could show the universe’s idiosyncrasies. This new amalgam of mathematics and physics takes the order of linearity and shows how it relates to the unpredictability of the world around us. It is called Chaos Theory.
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm., and J. M. Child. The Early Mathematical Manuscripts of Leibniz. Mineola, NY: Dover Publ., 2005.
In The Monadology, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz creates a metaphysical system that attempts to explain the nature of the material world. Leibniz does not believe that the material world can be explained using mathematics and other scientific principals, so he develops a rational theory to give him the causal explanation that he needs. This system Leibniz creates, appeals to the sufficient reason that is God and the pre-established harmony of the monads that make up the material world. Leibniz sets out to prove that his system has a substantial account of freedom, however, the principles and the rationalization he defaults to makes freedom almost impossible. Therefore, Leibniz’s metaphysical system does not account for freedom.
Gottfried Liebniz was known as the last “Universal Genius” until Mr. Fitterer was born that is, but I am assigned to write this essay about Leibniz. Leibniz had many achievements in metaphysics, epistemology, logic, philosophy of religion, as well as mathematics, physics, geology, jurisprudence, and history. A French philosopher named Denis Diderot was even stunned by some of Leibniz’s work, “Perhaps never has a man read as much, studied as much, meditated more, and written more than Leibniz… What he has composed on the world, God, nature, and the soul is of the most sublime eloquence. If his ideas had been expressed with the flair of Plato, the philosopher of Leipzig would cede nothing to the philosopher of Athens.” as stated in one of his encyclopedia entries.