Who and what influenced Leibniz philosophy?
Leibniz’s philosophy has a plethora of influences, but the main influences are widely acknowledged by scholars. The first is Rene Descartes. Descartes’s concept of substance, metaphysics, and idea of God heavily influenced Leibniz’s thought in these areas. Leibniz, however, rejects Cartesian dualism by maintaining that there is only one substance. He also rejects Cartesian physics, which simply does not explain properly the nature of motion and the collision between bodies. Furthermore, for Descartes matter is simply inert and lifeless; Leibniz argues that matter has a self-moving principle. This brings us to Leibniz’s second great influence: Aristotle. During Leibniz’s time, scientists widely believed that nature was simply lifeless matter. Leibniz rehabilitates Aristotle’s notion of a “final cause” (teleology) and incorporates it into his notion of substance. Thirdly, there is Spinoza. While Leibniz is harsh towards Spinoza in many ways, he does admire Spinoza’s monism as an advancem
