Leibnizs moral philosophy
Markku Roinila
By the time of his stay in Paris (1672-1676) Leibniz had already
developed the main characteristics of his moral philosophy. His
ethics is thus of early origin. Ethics has a very central, not to
say central, part in Leibniz's thought. Values are to him a central
way of reflecting universal harmony besides theoretical knowledge.
Leibniz's moral philosophy stayed relatively unchanged through his
life while his other doctrines changed considerably by time.
Leibniz sought to systematize moral philosophy, to analyze it to
the most simple principles. Grotius, Hobbes and Spinoza proclaimed
that ethics should employ the geometric method where the scientific
knowledge is based on axioms. Hobbes used both Galileian method of
analysis and synthesis and the axiomatic system in his works.
Leibniz, in much the same way as in other sciences, analyzed
concepts. For example :
the permissible = everything possible to a good man
the
obligatory = everything necessary to a good man
the good man =
he who loves everybody
According to Ernst Cassirer, Leibniz's ethics is a pure science
of reason, independent from anthropology or theology. This view is
shared by Nicholas Rescher : "Leibniz's ethics is of a strictly
proto-utilitarian character, and is, despite its apparently
theocentric origins, wholly secular in orientation." Leibniz himself
could not, of course, admit that God has no place in his moral
philosophy.
Leibniz can also be regarded as a precursor to Kant since he
tried to find a common ground for moral instead of reducing it to
private spheres as many empiricists did. Kant’s ethics is very
different, however, in many respects than Leibniz’s; for example :
Kant leans on to voluntarism while Leibniz is strictly critical of
voluntarism.
Goodness
Leibniz thought that will (an inner desire or desire to do
something) is central in human action. In Leibniz's doctrine will
means active striving to some goal (endeavor or conatus), which
follows the subject's conceptions (opinio) of good and evil. This
goal is the apparent good to the subject in question. And the
apparent good is dependent on knowledge. As we know more, our
judgment will refine and we can recognize greater goods.
"To will is nothing but the striving arising from thought, or to
strive for something which our thinking recognizes as good."
Conatus (which differs significantly from the concept of the same
name in Hobbes and in Spinoza) equals appetition : in other words it
is a mental desire (will) that drives a subject towards the goal
that he or she finds good. A right decision leads always to right
results.
Goodness is the goal of decisions. Good is that which leads to
pleasure. Good things are divided into two classes :
a) the ones, which produce pleasure by themselves
b) the ones
by which one can get pleasure
According to Leibniz, we get pleasure out of realizing that we do
virtuous deeds and at the same time promote universal perfection.
That which serves to the perfection of intelligent substances will
also contribute to their pleasure. In other words, the deeds that
promote more perfection in the world will also produce greater
pleasure. Things, which produce good in themselves, will satisfy
only the temporary needs while the deeds which will, in time, result
to bigger amounts of perfection, will produce more lasting
pleasures. In Leibniz's moral theory psychological egoism is
reconciled with the possibility of altruism.
"Goodness is simply the inclination to do good to everyone, and
to arrest evil, at least when it is not necessary for a greater good
or to arrest a greater evil."
It is also vital to have knowledge of the good and evil.
Therefore we should get as much right knowledge as we can in order
to recognize good as we see it. When we are enlightened enough, we
are able to see what action brings about the most perfection. For
this need Leibniz was interested in logic and reasoning. He dreamed
of an universal language, which would greatly facilitate our
reasoning and help us to make right decisions.
In addition to previous divisions, Leibniz distinguishes in his
letter to Bayle three kinds of goodness :
1) metaphysical goodness is a general process of perfection
2) physical goodness - pure pleasure as such - no relation to
the general process of perfection
3) moral goodness is virtuous
action which includes pleasure (and physical goodness)
"...The end of everything is to practice virtue for the common
good, or (which is the same thing) for the glory of God."
In here we find again that Leibniz’s analysis of value is
strictly connected to the process of perfection. There is also
metaphysical goodness in lifeless creatures. The physical goodness
concerns mostly intellectual beings and moral goodness concerns the
good and bad actions of these beings. So, virtuous action consists
of promoting the metaphysical goodness, which produces physical
goodness.
The best possible world is the most harmonious one, the one that
satisfies the variety/simplicity-criterion, the one with the most
reality or essence and the one which includes most beauty and
happiness. And on practical level, social order, government and law,
morality and the vision of God are all perspectives of the universal
harmony and worth promoting. We see here that Leibniz's practical
program, to which we shall continue shortly is based essentially on
the metaphysical harmony, which requires right action and right
decisions.
According to John Hostler, there are five central propositions in
Leibniz's theory of the good :
1) Good is that which produces pleasure
2) Pleasure is
produced when we perceive that the amount of perfection
has
increased
3) Volition is desire, which is controlled by judgment
4) Judgment applies only to perceivable good
5) Desire is
always for the best of the self
The points 4) and 5) are extremely important in order to
understand Leibniz's ethics properly. Our judgment applies only to
the apparent good - in another words : we can judge only things that
are within our reach. If we understand the right philosophy,
Leibniz's philosophy, we act for the perfection of the world. This
way we get pleasure and act for the best of the self, as point 5)
states. In other words, we should get right knowledge about God and
the metaphysical process of perfection in order to recognize the
best way to promote universal perfection, which will bring pleasure
to ourselves.
Our decisions are influenced by taste. We might choose a bad
thing like smoking because our taste may favor it or our social
environment may favor it. Matters of taste are often formed by
experiences. Leibniz holds as important the minute perceptions,
which are unconscious but which still influence our mind and
decisions in a major way. For example : as we toss a coin we know
without thinking which side is heads and which side is tails,
because we have learned it before. These minute perceptions might
influence our decisions and blur the judgments based on knowledge.
If our ideas are clear and distinct enough, however, the minute
perceptions will affect less on our judgment.
In a moral life charity (the maintenance of other's well-being)
is an end in itself. Why does Leibniz hold this altruistic
principle? Because it leads to the increasing amount of perfection.
The perfection is, as we saw, a source of pleasure to all rational
souls. To help others brings us pleasure. We have reached one of
Leibniz's favorite moral concepts : love. Love is pleasure of
other's happiness - it is one's own happiness and the other's
happiness combined together. When one does good to someone else, he
or she senses the increase of perfection in the world and gets
pleasure of the other persons happiness - this pleasure is love and
consequently, he or she loves the other person.
In addition to this, the good deeds are an advantage in the life
after death. Love is action, not only a feeling. When the concept of
love is combined to the concept of wisdom, a concept of justice
emerges.
Justice
Leibniz defines justice as the habit of loving as long as it is
in accordance with wisdom. Put otherwise : Caritas sapientas,
charity or love practiced by a wise man. In another context Leibniz
defines justice as constant will to act, so far as possible, in such
a way that no one can complain of us, if we would not complain of
others in a similar case.
Rescher says that the close connection between moral and justice
mirrors not only Leibniz's legal education but also his love of
mathematical order. This is undoubtedly true, but I find an
important motive also in the state of Germany in Leibniz's time.
Although Leibniz was no democrat, he seems to have been interested
in "enlightened" jurisprudence. Cassirer sees Leibniz's conception
of justice as an early form of Kantian categorical imperative , but
I find this argument ungrounded, since Leibniz's end in all action
was the perfection of the world and the increase of God's glory
whereas Kant's ends are much more voluntarist, based on
self-governance of men. To Leibniz the maintenance of other people's
well-being is just a medium for the perfection, not an end in
itself.
Leibniz makes a division between natural law and universal
justice. The universal justice includes charity towards all living
things and is used by God. Leibniz speaks about God's justice rather
than Divine compassion. The Universal Justice happens for the best
of all and is consequently tightly connected to the principle of
perfection and the dilemma of theodicy. In fact, Gaston Grua and
Patrick Riley argue - reasonably, I think - that Leibniz's whole
moral philosophy and metaphysics can be seen as philosophy of
justice, since everything is based ultimately on God's
jurisprudence.
The natural law applies to moral conduct of rational beings. The
difference between them is only a difference of degree : the same
jurisprudence applies in principle both to man and God. In this
respect Leibniz view's are in contrast with the Cartesians whose
voluntarist views stated that moral truths depend on God. This view
gave, so to speak, weapons to the hands of libertines who could
claim that God governs men randomly and arbitrarily. In his views of
natural law Leibniz's closest influence was Hugo Grotius, who was
very careful to argue that God’s actions are not arbitrary.
Leibniz constructed a legal system, the basic characteristics of
which he took from Justinianus' institutions. Leibniz seems to think
that the standard of God's actions is the Roman law. Since good
deeds are not always useful to ourselves, Leibniz has to rely on two
metaphysical principles : the immortality of the soul and the
existence of God.
"...The existence of God, however, ensures that every good act
will be beneficial, and every bad one harmful, to the agent. So that
not even a man who endures torture and death for the public good can
be regarded as an idiot."
In order to eliminate the "happy sinner" Leibniz postulates : God
as the King of the Kingdom of Grace maintains harmony. If this
harmony is broken, a punishment must be ordered to receive
compensation. Divine vengeance is a threat which should alone
prevent men to do evil. In addition to this, Leibniz conceived laws
which would encourage men to act for the best of others. This leads
to the conclusion that the ones who do not have enough knowledge and
understanding of the world and God, will more easily commit crimes
and bad deeds because of the lack of knowledge. Leibniz seems to
need a kind of threat, a sermon, which would be preached to the
simple people (as Hobbes would have the Christian golden rule
preached in churches). And here its is.
Leibniz’s doctrine of Divine punishment does not seem very
convincing. It is evident that although Leibniz promoted common
schools and public education, there would be just an elite which can
follow his moral philosophy. As we shall see later, Leibniz was not
a democrat - it may just be that Leibniz had the rulers, theologians
and councilors in mind here. His City of God would be a lot similar
like Plato’s Republic - apart from the pedagogical aspects.
The third precept of the presentation "Live righteously" has a
much more theological content than the original Justinianus' version
- it speaks of honesty. Leibniz uses the term pietas in the same
meaning. Honesty, righteous conduct refers in Leibniz to the concept
of virtue and virtuous life, which he defined as a habit or
disposition of acting easily in the manner prescribed by reason.
We can see from this definition that the principle of perfection
is at work here (in New Essays Leibniz defines pleasure as a sense
of perfection and pain as a sense of imperfection ) in addition to
the principle of reward and punishment after death presented in the
preceding page. From this fragment and the one in New Essays we can
conclude that happiness is, as perfection, a process. Leibniz wrote
in The Principles of Nature and Grace, Based on Reason :
”Thus our happiness will never consist, and must never
consist, in complete joy, in which nothing is left to desire, and
which would dull our mind, but must consist in a perpetual progress
to new pleasures and new perfections.”
It seems unlikely
that the desire for happiness would prevent men to act wrongly. This
question was debated actively within the tradition of natural law
thinking. Grotius thought that a desire for society, appetitus
societatis, would make men prefer the good of the society instead
their own short-term interests. Hobbes, on the other hand, thought
that all society is either for gain, or for glory; that is, not so
much for love of our fellows, as for the love of ourselves.
Leibniz thought that these two opinions were easily
reconciled. He used the golden rule as a standpoint and broadened it
to include charity to fellow men also. Leibniz tried to show that
there is reason for complaint not only when one is harmed by
another, but also when one is not helped to obtain a great good by
another who could do so without significant loss to himself. This
would mean that charity or to be exact, the promotion of perfection
becomes a duty.
Wisdom, justice and love form the main basic
structure of Leibniz's ethics, which is clearly visible in Leibniz's
following scheme :
"Who has wisdom, loves everybody. Who has
wisdom, looks for the useful of all. Who has wisdom, gains a lot.
Who has wisdom is a friend of God. God's friend has happiness. In
the same way the most wisest is happy...Who has wisdom, is
righteous. Who is righteous, has happiness."
As an
anti-voluntarist and against Hobbes and Pufendorf, Leibniz included
God into his discussion of actions. God practices universal justice
and no deed is left without a reward or punishment, as we saw
before. Still, Leibniz likes to present his moral philosophy in the
positive way (as in the scheme above). Pleasure or the sense of
perfection is the motive by which a wise man acts.
But even
the sense of perfection or the knowledge of Divine punishment is not
enough in all cases. This brings us to the old problem of Akrasia.
Akrasia (or weakness of the will) is an Aristotelian term which
refers to one of the moral states to be avoided. An acratic person
knows the best possible alternative, but chooses a worse
alternative. The subject acts intentionally, counter to his own best
judgment.
Aristotle divides Akrasia into two types : 1) a
case where there is something wrong with the premises of a practical
syllogism , which, in turn, prohibits the conclusion from being
properly reached (“weak Akrasia”) 2) the conclusion is reached
properly - Akrasia is a temporary and conscious ignorance of that
conclusion (“impetuous Akrasia”, “clear-eyed Akrasia”). Acratic
behavior is common amongst men. The problem of Akrasia poses a
problem for Leibniz - an akratic person understands in principle the
requirements of virtuous life but chooses otherwise.
The problem of Akrasia was reformulated by the medieval
philosophers. In the medieval model the person’s will is a
self-determining (or autonomous) unit in the sense that it chooses,
or consents to, or prefers the action which is suggested by reason.
The theory of will as an autonomous unit originated from
Augustine, but it was formulated in different ways by his
successors. The “Aristotelians” (who saw knowledge as a main factor
in rational decision-making) Albert the Great (1200-80) and Walter
Burley (1275-1346) were followed by the “Augustinians” Thomas
Aquinas (1225-74) and John Buridan (1300-58) , among others, who
adopted Albert the Great’s theory of probable moral judgments, but
replaced the Aristotelian desirous reason by free will.
The voluntarist theory of Duns Scotus stated that the will does
not necessarily have to follow the order of preferences set by the
reason. The alternative chosen by the reason may change to another
chosen by the will at the moment of decision because the valuation
of the situation or state of things have changed. The will is
directed to another object and the reason becomes aware of this.
Scotus' theory and the modal thinking of William Ockham gave new
objectives to moral thinking. Morality was seen either as a system
of duties or as a jungle of individual ends (ethical egoism).
Leibniz's discussion of the problem of Akrasia can be found in
New Essays, where he opposes Locke. Locke finds that virtuous
objectives are not enough to motivate man to act according to them.
He takes as an example a drunkard who cannot stop drinking although
his health is in ruins.
"Let a man be ever so well persuaded
of the advantage of virtue, that it is necessary to a man who has
any great aims in this world, or hopes in the next, as food to life
: yet, till he hungers after righteousness, till he feels an
uneasiness in the want of it, his will will not be determined to any
action in pursuit of this confessed greater good; but any other
uneasiness he feels in himself shall take the place, and carry his
will to other actions."
The state of uncertainty is a painful state for Locke. Taking
action reduces pain and is usually directed to short-term
objectives. For example, a drunkard may drink wine to his hangover
although he is aware of the fact that by not drinking any more wine
his hangover will not return the following day. A person is bound to
choose the worse alternative instead of the better one which will be
profitable in the remote future. Akrasia seems to be the normal
state of man and prudent action an exeption. Locke denies the common
view that will is in principle directed towards the good and seems
to support individual ethical egoism where only harsh control by
some authoritative would prevent the drunkard from drinking.
Locke notes that that it is unlikely that we will ever be totally
free of some kind of uneasiness - in other words, we will almost
never reach happiness. As a partial solution to the problem Locke
adopts a method developed by John Buridan, where the agent postpones
his volition to judge the matter carefully. If it seems that the
conclusion in question does not seem to lead to right action, the
agent may choose to refuse to accept the conclusion and ponder the
matter until he or she finds some other conclusion or finds further
evidence in favor of the conclusion reached. According to Locke,
experience shows us that we can win our uneasiness in most cases.
Leibniz argues in New Essays that uneasiness is not always a
bad thing and that the removal of that uneasiness does not always
produce satisfaction or pleasure. Leibniz’s argument is based on his
theory of minute perceptions, i.e. unconscious perceptions which we
are not aware of, but which nevertheless affect our judgment and
behavior. “What usually drives us are those minute insensible
perceptions which could be called sufferings that we cannot become
aware of, if the notion of suffering did not involve awareness.” The
minute perceptions blur our judgments and make us believe that a
wrong course of action is right in a given situation.
In his critique of Locke’s theory of uneasiness Leibniz at first
says that “I would not want...to encourage people to believe they
should give up the old axioms that the will pursues the greatest
good, and flees the greatest evil, of which it is sensible.” The
will is always directed to the good. The good is not present as the
object of the will, but as symbols. Leibniz calls this kind of
thoughts related to symbols “blind thoughts” (cogitationes caecae).
Blind thinking is clear thinking, which operates on symbols, names
or images, whereas “normal” thinking is always confused by minute
perceptions. The clearer we can think, the less power the minute
perceptions have over our judgment.
According to Leibniz, if we prefer worse it is because we have a
sense of the good it contains, but not of the evil it contains or
the good which exists on the opposite side (ref. the minute
perceptions). The main emphasis is on knowledge rather than on
feelings or affections as in Locke - in this respect Leibniz is very
Aristotelian. Leibniz maintains that the struggle between flesh and
spirit is nothing but the conflict between two different kinds of
endeavors - those that come from confused thoughts and those that
come from distinct ones.
The idea of blind thought, or unfinished analysis, is essential
here, since “Confused thoughts often make themselves vividly sensed,
whereas distinct ones are usually only potentially vivid : they
could be actually so, if we would only apply ourselves to getting
through to the senses of the words or symbols; but since we do not
do that, through lack of care or lack of time, what we oppose lively
sentiments with are bare words or at best images which are too
faint.”
We should learn to distinguish the two kinds of thoughts from
each other. This is possible by enlightenment. The first step would
be education. Man should make himself laws and rules for the future
and carry them out strictly and avoid situations which are capable
of corrupting him. As useful activities Leibniz recommends farming,
gardening, collecting curiosities, making experiments and inquiries,
conversation or reading. Idleness is to be avoided.
Both philosophers agree about the methods. Thus, : “...wait till
you have the findings of reason and from then on follow them, even
if they are ordinarily retained only as “blind thoughts” devoid of
sensible charms. We need this rule so as finally to gain control
both of our passions and of our insensible inclinations, or
disquiets, by acquiring that custom of acting in conformity with
reason which makes virtue a pleasure and second nature to us.”
Unlike Locke, Leibniz considers happiness a process and not a
state. Desire is an inevitable companion in this process, but he
regards desire a stimulus and talks about it as “healthy man’s
appetite”. He also talks about a series of “little triumphs” :
“...nature’s accumulation of continual little triumphs, in which it
puts itself more and more at ease - drawing closer to the good and
enjoying the image of it, or reducing the feeling of suffering - is
itself a considerable pleasure, often better than the actual
enjoyment of the good.” The greatest pleasure is not possible. The
good can increase eternally - and happiness is a lasting pleasure,
which cannot occur without a continual progress to new pleasures.
The appetite leads to new pleasures, which is the sense of
perfection in the world, but reason and will lead to happiness.
Leibniz tries to present the idea of deliberate wrong-doing as a
much less serious problem than Locke. Leibniz does not, however, try
to deny the problem of Akrasia. The acrates must be cured by
reducing the power of those unconscious minute perceptions, which as
such are a much less severe than Locke’s concept of uneasiness, i.
e. violent state of pain, which drives man to foolish actions.
By developing clearer and more distinct ideas the minute
perceptions have less power over our decisions. This can be achieved
by self-perfection, by increasing one’s knowledge of the world and
its creator and by learning to distinguish the true goals from the
mere temporary ones. We will never reach the absolutely best
conclusion, as this is possible only to God, but the problem of
Akrasia is less serious to the ones with adequate knowledge and
clear understanding.
One should weight the bad appetites with the good and reach a
conclusion, which seems always to be a compromise of the competing
options. Leibniz’s model seems to be similar to the ones he used in
discussing forces in philosophy of nature. The different appetites
are regarded as forces, which incline to different goals.This view
is related to medieval discussions of moral probabilism (moral
philosophy as probabilistic reasoning), but is not based on any
authority (as in the medieval philosophy the standard of the
reasoning was the doctrines of the Church). On the contrary,
Leibniz’s model is based on the (finite) understanding of the agent
himself. Leibniz's model of human action is different from Locke’s,
who thought it mainly along the Aristotelian vein, where action is
caused by deliberation if there is no hindrance of it. According to
Leibniz, an agent's action is not related to a practical syllogism,
but the resultant of a number of vector-like forces pulling the
agent in different directions. The agent judges the different
options and gives them different values, which are set at different
positions in the “map” of the situation in question. An illustration
of the model is presented in 5.3., where Leibniz’s view of the
reunion of the churches is discussed.
In a fragment “Ad Stateram juris de gradibus probationum et
probabilitatum Godefridi Veranii Lublinensis” Leibniz discusses
(adapting a pseudonym Gottfried the Truthdul of Lublin) of methods
of jurisprudence and maintains that “just as the mathematicians have
excelled in the practice of logic, i. e. the art of reason, in
necessary matters, so too the jurists have practiced it better than
anybody else in contingent (matters).” Leibniz’s theory of rational
decision-making seems to have been strongly influenced by practical
jurisprudence.
The freedom of the will is also a central question in Leibniz’s
discussion of Akrasia. His famous phrase “incline without
necessitating” is applicable in akratic situations : the akrates can
choose a worse alternative, but the good (present as blind thoughts)
persuades him or her to choose the best alternative (which promotes
the universal perfection as much as possible), if he is educated
enough. The more adequate knowledge the agent has, the more freedom
(real alternatives to choose) his will has.
The possibility of free will is much more difficult when Leibniz
discusses of God’s choice of the best of the possible worlds.
Leibniz could not allow God to act as an akrates, but he had to
secure God His free choice. That is why he had to attribute moral
necessity to God, which differs from metaphysical necessity and
inclines without necessitating. According to Jaakko Hintikka, a lot
of Leibniz's opponents based on the conception of Akrasia when
criticizing Leibniz's notion of the best of the possible worlds. God
cannot act as an akrates (choose against His better judgment) and
hence is necessitated to choose the best of the possible worlds.
Leibniz denied this argument. His God is persuaded by the good and
this is Leibniz's last word on the matter. On the other hand,
Leibniz could not allow God the possibility of akratic behavior,
either.
The City of God
The monads are divided into two classes as shown before. The
Kingdom of Nature includes all non-rational monads whereas the
Kingdom of Grace includes all rational souls. This division is of
early origin and it appears both in Augustine and Malebranche.
"This society, or universal Republic of Spirits under their
sovereign Monarch, is the most noble part of the universe. It is
composed of lesser Gods beneath the Great God, for one can say that
the created spirits differ From God only in degree, as finite from
infinite. It is certainly true, besides, that the universe as a
whole has been created simply to add to the glory and happiness of
this divine city."
God practices universal right for the best of all. The goal of
Universal well-being is manifested in the Kingdom of Grace, where
the administrative is God and subjects are the souls.
The ultimate rule in God’s justice is not the desire of God but
his wisdom. In Leibniz's system God is both immanent (working under
the principles of justice) and transcendent (the principles are
dependent of Him). What makes these principles logically necessary?
They are rooted in the being which has the moral attributes of love
and wisdom. That is why God has to act under them - His nature makes
Him to obey these principles. In other words : we are talking about
the moral necessity of God.
God is persuaded to act for the best by good and his intellect
(moral necessity), although the moral necessity in Him does not
incline him to act for the best. God’s will is the key point here.
If God does not will to act for the best, he does not have to. He
can choose otherwise. But He acts for the best because His intellect
is persuaded by the good and He thus finds a sufficient reason to
act for the best. The end of justice, the promotion of common good,
does not apply only to the social well-being of men, but also to the
perfection of the universe and the promotion of God's glory.
As we saw before, moral necessity leads God to choose the best of
available possible worlds. The creation of this world must not be
logically necessary but should be grounded on some argument or the
creation would be arbitrary. In the world He has chosen, in this
world there is a maximum amount of phenomena which are governed by
the simplest and smallest amount of laws. In this world there is
unity in plurality. These qualities form the sufficient reason,
which is behind God's decision to choose just this world to create.
The view of the best possible world, presented above, is the
traditional view among commentators, but there has recently been a
lot of different views on the matter, as discussed before.
The maximum amount of phenomena combined with the smallest amount
of simple laws give also rise to harmony. Leibniz's idea of harmony
has strong aesthetical attributes. The world-order has aesthetical
values in itself. Harmony is also a different thing than the
pre-established harmony. Harmony is a premise to argument, which
says that the world is good. According to Leibniz, the creation of
the world guarantees a maximum amount of happiness to all. This
follows from the reflection of the best possible world by the
rational souls, which produces pleasure. Leibniz says that the
perfections of God can best be meditated through the necessary
truths and the harmony of the world. When a maximum amount of
perfection is realized, the maximum amount of pleasure is gained.
Perfection is a criterion of essence : the one which has more
essence is also more perfect than the other one which has it less.
"Infinite goodness having guided the creator in the
production of the world, all the characteristics of knowledge,
skill, power, and greatness that are displayed in his work are
destined for the happiness of intelligent creatures. He wished to
show forth his perfections only to the end that creatures of this
kind should find their felicity in the knowledge, the admiration and
the love of the supreme being."
Another argument for the goodness of the world is based on moral
virtue and the kingdom of Grace. When you realize goodness in your
life, you receive joy and happiness. Happiness has also other,
metaphysical dimensions in Leibniz's philosophy. God as a monarch of
the Kingdom of Grace is set to secure the happiness of all rational
souls.
The essence of harmony is the criterion of happiness of all
spirits, which can act intellectually. Since happiness consists of
spirit's awareness of harmony a world containing most harmony is the
most potential world for them provided that this world contains
enough spirits who love God and are deserving of happiness.
Consequently, the most harmonious world contains the greatest amount
of happiness. Leibniz evidently subscribes to an Augustinian
doctrine, which says that the subjects of the City of God are in a
way egoistic - they serve God for their own satisfaction since God
does not really need them (He is self-sufficient).
Theodicy
In Essais de Théodicée (1710), which was written to an answer to
Bayle's article of Leibniz (Rorarius) in Dictionnaire historique et
critique (1697), Leibniz discusses two problems which appear already
in the writings of Church fathers Augustine and Origenes. The other
was the problem of Akrasia or weakness of the will already discussed
and the other problem concerned of how it is possible that there is
sin and evil in the world, when God is good by nature. Why are not
men created perfect? Why is there imperfect things and states in the
best of all possible worlds?
Leibniz approaches the problem by showing that it was impossible
for God to create a totally perfect world. The creation is a
realization of a thing in God's understanding and the evil lies in
just this condition. The idea of a possible world is comprised of a
set of logically coherent entities whose inner properties are not
defined by God Himself but by their logical compossibility. This
leads to the evident fact that this world contains some inner
imperfections which will necessary realize in creation.
"Every relation, every proportion, every analogy, every
proportionality stems from the nature of God, not his will, or what
is the same thing, from the idea of things."
The solution resembles a lot the solutions of Plotinus and
Augustine. Plotinus thought that since God's emanation is perfect,
evil cannot exist independently in the world. In another words it is
an illusion. Christianity could not accept this theory and as an
alternative theory there emerged the theory which stated that God's
perfectness requires an imperfect world which inhabitants can marvel
God's perfect world and gain consolations from it. The influence of
Hugo Grotius, Malebranche and the opposition of Cartesian
voluntarism are also visible in Leibniz's doctrine, where God is
comprehensible and subject to the laws of nature.
The inhabitants of the Kingdom of Grace just have to get used to
this perfection. Evil is not an illusion, it is unavoidable - all
other possibilities are even worse. Leibniz regards evil
systematically as a necessary condition to a greater good. One has
only to understand this fact in order to became happy and content.
Leibniz says :
"I do not believe that that which is best and
most regular is always convenient at the same time for all
creatures."
and :
"...Those who are not satisfied with what He does seem to me like
discontented subjects whose intentions are not very different from
those of rebels."
Punishment has a moral element. It is not
just human officials or fellowmen who demand satisfaction and
compensation - its is the harmony of things that demands it.
"They imagine despotism in God, and demand that man be
convinced, without reason, of the absolute certainty of his
election, a course that is liable to have dangerous consequences.
But all those who acknowledge that God produces the best plan,
having chosen it from among all possible ideas of the universe; that
he there finds man inclined by the original imperfection of
creatures to misuse his free will and to plunge into misery; that
God prevents the sin and the misery in so far as the perfection of
the universe, which is an emanation from his, may permit it: those,
I say, show forth more clearly that God's intention is the one most
right and holy in the world; that the creature alone is guilty, that
his original limitation or imperfection is the source of his
wickedness, that his evil will is the sole cause of his misery; that
one cannot be destined to salvation without also being destined to
the holiness of the children of God..."
Even though the evil
is necessary in Leibniz's theodicy, it has no ontological status in
Leibniz's system. It is only the lack of goodness. Leibniz divides
evil into three classes : 1) metaphysical evil (imperfection) 2)
physical evil (suffering) 3) moral evil (sin). The physical and
moral evils can be reduced to the metaphysical evil.
Leibniz's metaphysical optimism is based on the belief of
God's goodness. God acts for the best of men in the limits of logic.
God chooses the best world although He did not have to. As we have
seen, the best of all possible worlds is not necessarily an absolute
perfect world. I feel that the view expressed by Jaakko Hintikka,
"Leibniz's thesis of our world's being the best of all is therefore
not an optimistic one at all in its true implications, but one of
the darkest views anyone has ever taken of the prospects of the
human race" is accurate.
Leibniz dissociated himself from
two radical solutions which had been given earlier. Averroists
wanted to make God responsible for all man's actions and socianists
denied God's ability to foresee things. Leibniz tried to find a
middle way between these two views and received in his solution a
lot of influences from two scholastics, a Portuguese Jesuit Luis de
Molina (1535-1600) and another scholastic, Francisco Suárez.
The Progress towards Perfection
How can the evil of the world be relieved? The pious person
demonstrates his knowledge and love of God by executing to his
fullest ability what he understands to be God's plan for the best of
all possible worlds : a plan in which the greatest possible
perfection is achieved through the progressive enlightenment of
minds, and their continued growth in knowledge, happiness, and
virtue. His motto is theoria cum praxi - theory with practice. God
has no use for the comfort-chair philosophers, theoretical works and
academic speculations. We must proceed to happiness, which is, as we
saw, progress to perfection.
A few questions arise. How can a man with his limited ability of
perception know God's plans? How is he able to decide what to do in
a given situation? Although we have partly answered this question (A
subject does what seems best to him), the problem persists. We can
only act towards perfection as we understand it. How can a finite
being approach perfection, then? That is simple : God is a perfect
being and therefore knowledge of God produces happiness. We must
therefore increase our knowledge of the world and through study of
nature we can gain knowledge about God and His creation. Gradually
we learn to distinguish the ways by which the greatest amount of
perfection can be achieved. The wiser the man, the happier he is,
since the more perfection one promotes, the more pleasure of it he
gets.
"For happiness is to persons what perfection is to
beings. And if the highest principle ruling the existence of the
physical world is the degree which gives it greatest perfection
possible, the highest purpose in the moral world, or the city of God
which is the noblest part of the universe, should be to spread in it
the greatest possible happiness."
We saw before that
perfection is defined as unity within variety. But is perfection a
state of things or a process which never ends? Clearly the latter
answer seems more correct by the light what we have already said.
Leibniz seems to think that the process is in itself perfect but the
goal of this progress is not in sight :
"Though the state of
the world could never be absolutely perfect at any particular
instant whatever...nevertheless the whole actual sequence would
always be the most perfect of all possible sequences".
This
is an instance, of course, of the complete individual notion. The
sequence is binded by other developments so that the whole is
compossible, in other words : the whole of the process is the most
harmonious, or perfect of all possible processes (worlds). This
means that perfection is at the same time a state and a process.
This is probably the best answer to the difficult question
posed by Reinhardt Koselleck - if we take it for granted that
Leibniz thought that the best of the possible worlds is the best
only if it never stops developing, could we say that Leibniz had a
modern conception of time which can be regarded as pioneering the
views of Enlightenment? Leibniz's view of the process of perfection
is not dynamic in this sense - it is a never-ending story, which has
been written a long, long time ago. In other words the development
to perfection is the increase of essence of the world regulated by
the simple laws of pre-established harmony - and this is hardly the
modern linear concept of time. We have also seen that Leibniz
thought time to be just a convenient way of thinking dynamically -
in fact time does not exist in reality, it is only a well-grounded
phenoma.
The happiness which follows from the process of perfection is
constant because the perception of such perfection is infinite. The
perception produces same kind of aesthetic satisfaction as watching
a work of art or hearing music. Leibniz's view resembles the views
of Plato and Aristotle who thought that when reason is actualized,
man begins to see a standing order in the external world. Leibniz
compares the Kingdom of Grace to a monarchy, whose prince contains
the best characteristics of Queens Elizabeth, Anne and Sophie
Charlotte of Prussia.
Catherine Wilson even sees in Leibniz a fourth good, aesthetic
good which means the order and regularity of the world. This fourth
good cannot be reduced to metaphysical good ; the fourth good is at
its maximum in a perfect world. This same line is carried on by
George Gale who goes even so far as to say that only mathematicians
can think of this world as perfect. But this is a little
far-fetched. As we saw before, the beauty and happiness are brought
about by the knowledge and meditation of God's essence and creation.
One cannot love God without loving one's fellowman. The
practice of justice and religiousness leads to moral virtue.
Although moral virtue is its own reward, a religious unification
would help the progress towards perfection. Leibniz wrote that
Christian virtues consist not only in talking and in thinking, but
in thinking practically, that is, in acting. And to this we shall
turn next.
Conclusion
It all comes down to perfection. Perfection is the key concept in
Leibniz's Kingdom of Grace, in the form of clearer perceptions of
monads in the Kingdom of Nature, and, as we will shortly find out,
combined with the concept of justice, also in his practical action.
The principle of perfection is the key that combines the two
Kingdoms of Nature and Grace. Leibniz is in pains to show the
importance of the principle of perfection, but fails to give clear
any definition to his principle. As with the principle of sufficient
reason, he seems to take it as a self-evident thing. Otherwise,
Leibniz's ethics and theology are fairly valid as a system. As E. M.
Huggard says : "His system is, if nothing else, a miracle of
ingenuity, and there are moments when we are in danger of believing
it."
Leibniz seems to maintain that the perfection is a
process which follows from the structure of the world in general.
The pre-established harmony, the identity of indiscernibles, the
principle of sufficient reason and the monadological scheme of the
universe are a counterpart of the Kingdom of Nature for the
principle of perfection, which is realized in both of the Kingdoms
of Nature and Grace. One should not forget, however, that the
principles of the Kingdom of Grace are working also in the Kingdom
of Nature.
We have said that Leibniz could never prove his
conception of perfection. How could he? Perfection is to Leibniz a
property, which follows straight from the essence of God whose
intellect consists in the maximum amount of perfection. In another
words, perfection is realized partly in the creation. And, as he had
shown, God exists. The Kingdom of Grace is always more important
than the Kingdom of Nature and the reasons are primarily ethical. If
Leibniz had not hold on to his ethical ideals, his system would have
been more coherent. In Leibniz's philosophy, metaphysics is usually
superseded by ethics.
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