INTRODUCTION 581
for the will it suffices that this reason should incline without necessitating.” Of
course, he also claims that our wills are created by God and that God foreknows
what we will will ourselves to do. But the action of our wills is not necessary in
the sense that willing something else involves a logical contradiction; hence, our
wills can be said to be “free.”
Leibniz never wrote a magnum opusthat clearly defined his position on philo-
sophical issues. The Discourse on Metaphysics(1686), reprinted here (complete)
in the Martin and Brown translation, gives his early ideas on metaphysics. The
Monadology(1714), also reprinted here (complete) in the Paul Schrecker and
Anne Martin Schrecker translation, presents his mature position on metaphysics.
For general introductions to Leibniz’s philosophy, see Nicholas Rescher,The
Philosophy of Leibniz(Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1967); C.D. Broad,
Leibniz: An Introduction, edited by C. Lewy (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1975); Stuart Brown,Leibniz(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
1984); Robert Merrihew Adams,Leibniz: Determinist, Theist, Idealist(Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1994); Donald Rutherford,Leibniz and the Rational
Order of Nature(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997); Nicholas
Jolley, Leibniz (London: Routledge, 2005); Lloyd Strickland, Leibniz
Reinterpreted(London: Continuum, 2006); Franklin Perkins,Leibniz; A Guide
for the Perplexed(London: Continuum, 2007); and Maria Rosa Antognazza,
Leibniz: An Intellectual Biography(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2009). For a discussion of the logic and metaphysics of Leibniz, Bertrand Russell,
A Critical Exposition of the Philosophy of Leibniz(London: George Allen &
Unwin, 1900), is still a valuable source. For more recent treatments of these
issues, see Hidé Ishiguro,Leibniz’s Philosophy of Logic and Language(Ithaca,
NY: Cornell University Press, 1972); Benson Mates,The Philosophy of Leibniz:
Metaphysics and Language(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986); Reginald
Osburn Savage,Real Alternatives: Leibniz’s Metaphysics of Choice(Norwell,
MA: Kluwer, 1998); Christia Mercer,Leibniz’s Metaphysics: Its Origins and
Development(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999) and Daniel
Garber,Leibniz: Body, Substance, Monad(Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2009). For a commentaries on The Monadology, see Herbert Wildon Carr,The
Monadology of Leibniz(Los Angeles: University of Southern California Press,
1930) and Anthony Savile,Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Leibniz and the
Monadology (London: Routledge, 2000). For collections of essays, see Harry G.
Frankfurt, ed.,Leibniz: A Collection of Critical Essays(Garden City, NY:
Doubleday, 1972); R.S. Woolhouse, ed.,Leibniz: Metaphysics and Philosophy of
Science(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981); Michael Hooker,Leibniz:
Critical and Interpretive Essays(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
1984); Vere Chappell, ed.,Essays on Early Modern Philosophers: Gottfried
Wilhelm Leibniz(Hamden, CT: Garland Press, 1992); Nicholas Jolley, ed.,The
Cambridge Companion to Leibniz(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1995); Catherine Wilson, ed.,Leibniz(New York: Ashgate, 2000); and Donald
Rutherford and J.A. Cover, eds.,Leibniz: Nature and Freedom(Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2005).