2024/01/01 by Arnaud Pelletier · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · #Historical Philosophy and Science #Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis #Kantian Philosophy and Modern Interpretations
paper · doi:10.25162/sl-2024-0007
openalex publication_date 2024/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/11/23 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
Heinrich Schepers challenged the dichotomy between genetic and systematic readings of Leibniz’s philosophy. He argued that the development of Leibniz’s metaphysics took the form neither of a linear and systematic evolution, nor of a simple succession of divergent formulations, but rather of the gradual unfolding of a single, fundamentally coherent metaphysical system. He proposed what we might call an ‘epigenetic’ model to describe this process, in which Leibniz’s central – rational – philosophical ideas remained permanent, yet were inflected and developed in response to changing contexts and external circumstances. This epigenetic approach allows for a more nuanced understanding of Leibniz’s ‘ways to a mature metaphysics’. However, in supporting the idea of a ‘rationalism by intention’ in Leibniz, it tends to downplay the constitutive role of experience in it.