Some scholars in the history of ideas have had a growing interest in examining Leibniz's many discussions ofvarious aspects of religion, Christian, Jewish and far eastern. Leibniz, with his voracious interest and concern for so many aspects of human intellectual and spiritual life, read a wide variety of books on the various religions of mankind. He also was in personal contact with many of those who espoused orthodox and non-orthodox views. He annotated his copies of many books on religious subjects. And he was working on schemes for reuniting the various Catholic and Protestant churches in Europe. Studies on Leibniz's views on Judaism, on the Kabbalah, on Chinese thought have been appearing over the last decades. It was decided by some of us that since there has been a growing interest in this side of Leibniz's thought it would be a good idea to bring together a group of scholars working on different aspects of Leibniz's views on religion, mysticism and spiritualism, in order to h~ve them present papers on their current researches, and to have the opportunity for lengthy discussion, formal and informal, in the most pleasant academic ambiance of the William Andrews Clark Library in Los Angeles. Under the sponsorship of the UCLA Center for Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Studies, a workshop conference was held November 18-19, 1994.

Bringing together Leibniz's writings on God and religion for the very first time, Leibniz on God and Religion: A Reader reflects the growing importance now placed on Leibniz's philosophical theology. This reader features a wealth of material, from journal articles and book reviews published in Leibniz's lifetime to private notes and essays, as well as items from his correspondence. Organised thematically into the following sections, this reader captures the changes in Leibniz's thinking over the course of his career: The Catholic Demonstrations The existence and nature of God Reason and faith Ethics and the love of God The Bible Miracles and mysteries The churches and their doctrines Grace and predestination Sin, evil, and theodicy The afterlife Non-Christian religions In preparing this reader, Strickland has returned to Leibniz's original manuscripts to ensure accurate translations of key texts, the majority of which have not been available in English before. The reader also contains a number of texts previously unpublished in any form. Alongside the translations, this reader contains an introductory essay, explanatory notes on all of the texts, and suggestions for further reading. This valuable sourcebook enables students of all levels to achieve a well-rounded understanding of Leibniz's philosophical theology.

Leibniz’s correspondence from his years spent in Paris (1672-1676) reflects his growth to mathematical maturity whereas that from the years 1676-1701 reveals his growth to maturity in science, technology and medicine in the course of which more than 2000 letters were exchanged with more than 200 correspondents. The remaining years until his death in 1716 witnessed above all the appearance of his major philosophical works. The focus of the present work is Leibniz's middle period and the core themes and core texts from his multilingual correspondence are presented in English from the following subject areas: mathematics, natural philosophy, physics (and cosmology), power technology (including mining and transport), engineering and engineering science, projects (scientific, technological and economic projects), alchemy and chemistry, geology, biology and medicine.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) was one of the first Modern philosophers, and as such, one of the most significant. His contributions were often pathbreaking and his imprint still remains on fields such as logic, mathematics, science, international law, and ethics. While publishing relatively little during his life, he was in regular correspondence with important philosophers and even political leaders. The Historical Dictionary of Leibniz's Philosophy sheds light not only on his philosophical thought but also the impact it had on the thinking of his contemporaries. They, and he, are described in numerous cross-referenced dictionary entries. Also included are other entries that present his writings, explain his concepts, and trace his action in specific fields. The introduction sums much of this up and_along with the bibliography_provides a strong foundation for further study.

Some experiences of the natural world bring a sense of unity, knowledge, self-transcendence, eternity, light, and love. This is the first detailed study of these intriguing phenomena. Paul Marshall explores the circumstances, characteristics, and after-effects of this important but relatively neglected type of mystical experience, and critiques explanations that range from the spiritual and metaphysical to the psychoanalytic, contextual, and neuropsychological. The theorists discussed include R. M. Bucke, Edward Carpenter, W. R. Inge, Evelyn Underhill, Rudolf Otto, Sigmund Freud, Aldous Huxley, R. C. Zaehner, W. T. Stace, Steven Katz, and Robert Forman, as well as contemporary neuroscientists. The book makes a significant contribution to current debates about the nature of mystical experience.

In this volume, the relationship between religion and contingency is investigated. Its historical part comprises analyses of important philosophers’ interpretations of this relationship, viz. that of Leibniz, Kant, Lessing, Jaspers, and Heidegger. Its systematic part analyses how this relationship should be currently (re-)interpreted. The upshot of the different interpretations is a re-evaluation of the traditional assumption that accepting contingency is detrimental to the pursuit of religion. It is shown that a number of the philosophers scrutinized are not as critical regarding the acceptance of (certain sorts of) contingency in the religious realm as is often thought, and the systematic contributions show that it may be unavoidable, sometimes even desirable, to accept contingency when dealing with religion. Contributors include: Lieven Boeve, Wim Drees, Joris Geldhof, Dirk-Martin Grube, Frans Jespers, Peter Jonkers, Donald Loose, Ben Vedder, Henk Vroom.

Larry M. Jorgensen provides a systematic reappraisal of Leibniz's philosophy of mind, revealing the full metaphysical background that allowed Leibniz to see farther than most of his contemporaries. In recent philosophy much effort has been put into discovering a naturalized theory of mind. Leibniz's efforts to reach a similar goal three hundred years earlier offer a critical stance from which we can assess our own theories. But while the goals might be similar, the content of Leibniz's theory significantly diverges from that of today's thought. Perhaps surprisingly, Leibniz's theological commitments yielded a thoroughgoing naturalizing methodology: the properties of an object are explicable in terms of the object's nature. Larry M. Jorgensen shows how this methodology led Leibniz to a fully natural theory of mind.

Despite the importance of Leibniz's mature philosophy, his early work has been relatively neglected. This collection begins with an overview of his formative years and includes 12 original papers by internationally-known scholars. The contributions reflect the wide range of the young Leibniz's philosophical interests and his interests in related subjects, including law, physics and theology. Some chapters explore his relationship to other philosophers, including his teachers in Leipzig and Jena and his Paris friend Tschirnhaus, as well as Hobbes and Spinoza. Others focus on particular periods or texts and deal with themes ranging from ethics and free-will to his philosophically-significant account of transubstantiation and his early monadology. Some of the topics are familiar to Leibniz students - harmony, sufficient reason and possible worlds, for instance - but others are less familiar - for instance, his attitude to historical truth, millenarianism and the relation of mathematics to the natural world. The book provides an introduction to Leibniz's early philosophy and throws light on the development of some of the doctrines with which he is particularly associated.

This book demonstrates that there is clear overlap between Leibniz’s “Discourse on Metaphysics” and his “Examination of the Christian Religion,” converging in the moral quality of God and man that Leibniz took as the cornerstone of his system in 1686.

If one takes Heidegger at his word then his philosophy is about pursuing different "paths" of thought rather than defining a single set of truths. This volume gathers the work of an international group of scholars to present a range of ways in which Heidegger can be read and a diversity of styles in which his thought can be continued. Despite their many approaches to Heidegger, their hermeneutic orientation brings these scholars together. The essays span themes from the ontic to the ontological, from the specific to the speculative. While the volume does not aim to present a comprehensive interpretation of Heidegger's later thought, it covers much of the terrain of his later thinking and presents new directions for how Heidegger should and should not be read today. Scholars of Heidegger's later thought will find rich and original readings that expand considerations of Heidegger's entire oeuvre.