The Heart Is Not an Animated Body: Machines of Nature, Functional Organs and Monadic Domination in Leibniz
For the mature Leibniz, the organic bodies of living beings or substances are “machines of nature” containing both infinitely many (a) functional bodily organs and (b) further substances. These latter substances are said to be dominated by or subordinate to the original substance. I show that commen...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Aperio
2024-04-01
|
| Series: | Journal of Modern Philosophy |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://jmphil.org/article/id/1889/ |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | For the mature Leibniz, the organic bodies of living beings or substances are “machines of nature” containing both infinitely many (a) functional bodily organs and (b) further substances. These latter substances are said to be dominated by or subordinate to the original substance. I show that commentators have tended to conflate subordinate substances with organs, thus committing Leibniz to the position that organs are individual subordinate substances, i.e., living beings. Against this view, I argue for a “Dual Component” account of Leibnizian organic body according to which Leibniz distinguished organs and subordinate substances as distinct types of organic bodily parts. On this account, organs are not equivalent to individual subordinate substances, and are, in fact, aggregates of such substances. I thereby shed light on the metaphysical relationships of domination between substances as well as the mechanical structure of Leibnizian organic body. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2644-0652 |