Leibniz - The Monadology - Epoch Magazine

Leibniz's “Monadology“ sets itself the question “What is everything made of?“ Very quickly the proposition emerges that the simple substances from which complex, composite things are composed cannot be extended, because to be extended is to have shape, and to have shape is to have parts and be, in theory, divisible. The text then develops this position - that extended things are seemingly composed from non-extended simples - and explores how it is possible, and what must necessarily be the case concerning these simples, dubbed “monads“. Three major conclusions emerge, firstly that despite not having extension, monads must be differentiated from one another on the basis of their qualities, and the transformations among these. The idea of simple, non-extended substances populated by shifting qualities is directly correlate to what we refer to as minds, populated with perceptions, which become one species of monad, differing in degree fro