Leibniz on Existence: A Historical and Analytical Study

Authors

Keywords:

Leibniz, Existence, Possible world, Modality, Ontology

Synopsis

Leibniz on Existence offers a systematic reconstruction of Leibniz’s evolving conception of existence, combining historical and analytical approaches. It argues that Leibniz conceives existence on three interconnected levels—phenomenological (real vs. imaginary), ontological (concrete vs. abstract), and modal (actual vs. possible)—and that the tensions among these levels are structural to his metaphysics. Tracing his thought from its nominalist beginnings to the mature theory of possible worlds, the book shows how Leibniz’s reflections on existence illuminate the interplay between rational theology, metaphysics, and the relation between the possible and the actual.

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Author Biography

Osvaldo Ottaviani, CNRS

has been a postdoctoral researcher at Radboud University Nijmegen for two years and has recently joined the Laboratoire SPHERE (Paris) within the ERC project PHILLIUM. He has held research positions at the Universities of Münster and Milan, as well as at the Israel Institute of Technology (Haifa). His main research interests lie in the history of early modern philosophy and science. He has published several papers on various aspects of Leibniz’s philosophy, including the edition and translation of some of Leibniz’s previously unpublished manuscripts. Together with Richard Arthur, he is co-editor of the recently published volume Leibniz: Writings on the Metaphysics of the Infinite (Oxford University Press, 2025).

Published

December 22, 2025

Details about the available publication format: PDF

PDF

ISBN-13 (15)

979-12-5510-358-5

Details about the available publication format: EPUB

EPUB

ISBN-13 (15)

979-12-5510-361-5

Details about the available publication format: BUY

BUY

ISBN-13 (15)

979-12-5510-363-9