2008/09/25 by Donald Rutherford · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · #Classical Philosophy and Thought #Historical Philosophy and Science #Medieval and Classical Philosophy
paper · doi:10.1093/oso/9780199550401.003.0005
openalex publication_date 2008/09/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
Abstract Leibniz has long been held to be an idealist.Minimally, this involves the claim that, in his late writings at least, Leibniz’s fundamental ontology— his inventory of the ultimately real, independently existing things — is limited to mind-like, simple substances, or monads. This fixes one meaning of the term ‘idealism’, and considerable evidence confirms that in his late writings Leibniz is, in this sense, an idealist.