LEIBL. 103 LEIBNITZ. Academy, then studied in Paris, where he was influenced by Courbet. His highly prized scenes from peasant life, marked by strong realistic characterization of the rustic types and excellent modeling of the heads, are represented to great advantage in the Xational Gallery in Berlin, by "Peasant Women of Dachau Conversing," "A Himtsman," and "The Two Poachers;" in the Xew Pinakothek. ilunich, by "Interior of Peas- ant's Home" and "In a Small Town;" and in the Dresden Gallerj- by "Peasant Girls Knitting." At the art exhibition of 1S9.5 in Berlin the great gold medal was awarded to him. LEIBNITZ, llb'nits (Ger., Leibniz), Gott- FBIED WiLHELM VOX (1646-1716). A German philosopher and mathematician, born in Leipzig. His father, who was professor of law at the uni- versity, died when Leibnitz was six years old. He studied at the Xilcolaischule of his native city, under Thomasius; entered the university with unusual preparation, in his fifteenth year, and selected the law as his profession, but de- voted himself also to philosophy and literature. When seventeen years old he defended a remark- able thesis entitled De principio Indiiidui, and » during the following summer he spent some time at the University of .Jena, studying mathe- matics. In 1064 he published Hpecimen Difflcul- tatis ill Jure, and in 166G Ars Combinatoriu. In that year he presented himself for the degree in law. In consequence of his youth, however, he was not permitted to take it at Leipzig, but a few months later, November, 16G6, he received the degiee of doctor juris from Alt- dorf. After pursuing further studies he had the good fortune to become a kind of protege of Baron von Boyneburg. ex-Prime jNIinister to tlie Elector of ilainz. At Boyneburg's sugges- tion, he dedicated to the Elector an essay, Sova Methodus Discendw Docendasgue Jurisprudentiw (1667). This gained an appointment for Leib- nitz in the Elector's service. Leibnitz now ( 1668- 69) set to work to reform the Corpus Juris (q.v. ). Jleanwhile he published several theologi- cal treatises. In 1670. at the age of twenty-four, he was appointed assessor on the bench of the upper court of appeals, which was the supreme court of the electorate. In 1672 he accompanied Boyneburg's sons to Paris, and there submitted to Louis XIV. a plan for the invasion of Egypt. Leibnitz's real intention in this memorandum was to divert Louis's attention from plans against Germany. From Paris he went to Lon- don ; both in Paris and in London he formed the acquaintance of the most eminent philoso- phers, among them Xewton. Huygens. and Malebranche. In 1676 Leibnitz entered the serv- ice of the Duke of Brunswick-Lilneburg as libra- rian and privy councilor. After a tour of his- torical exploration, he prepared a .series of works illustrating the history of the House of Bruns- wick. He undertook likewise the scientific di- rection and organization of the mines in the Harz. into which he introduced many improve- ments: he took an active part in negotiations for Church unions, and in the theological discus-, sions connected therewith, which fonned the sub- ject of a protracted correspondence with Bossuet and with Pelisson. His private studies, however, were chiefly philosophical and philological. He was chief organizer and first president of the Society of Sciences of Berlin, which .later be- came the Berlin Academy; and he originated at both Dresden and Vienna projects for the establishment of similar bodies. It was to him, likewise, that Peter the Great owed the plan of the since celebrated Academj- of Saint Peters- burg. The Czar bestowed on Leibnitz a pension and the title of privy councilor. In 1714 Leib- nitz wrote the ilonadologie in French for Prince Eugene of Savoy. Toward the close of his life Leibnitz spent some time in further work on the annals of the House of Brunswick, and was drawn into a philosophical controversy with Samuel Clarke (q.v.). Before the close of the controversy he died rather unexpectedly at Han- over, November 14, 1716. A monument has been erected to him in Hanover, and in 1883 a statue was unveiled in Leipzig. Leibnitz was eminent in history, divinity, phi- losophy, political studies, experimental science, mathematics, mining engineering, and even belles-lettres. But it is chiefly through his phil- osophical reputation that he lives in history. He was greatly influenced by the Cartesian phi- losophy; but he difi'ered from Descartes both in his method and in some of his principles. In epistemology Leibnitz was an opponent of the doctrine that the mind, at birth, is a tabula rasa, a blank tablet to be written on by experience. He maintained, on the contrary, that, although we are not born with read^'-made knowledge in the sense of clear, distinct ideas, still there are "small, dark notions of the soul," which are not the mere passive receptions of im- pressions. There may be perceptions of which we are not aware, or which are not aware of them- selves. Indeed, in the last resort, Leibnitz denies reality of everything which is not a percipient or a perception. The perception may be very minute, so as not to be self-conscious, or it may be conscious of itself. In the latter case it is called apperception. Growth in knowledge con- sists in the process of clarification and distinction of ideas. Sense is not fundamentally different from intellect; it is only confused intellect. Nothing comes to the soul from without. Every- thing it seems to acquire in the process of learn- ing is originally possessed in obscure form. Vir- tually, therefore, all ideas are innate in the sense that they are not acquired ; but the explicit con- sciousness of them is acquired. That which has presentations is called by Leibnitz a monad, or a unity, just because it is thus a self-contained system of perceptions, not influenceable from without. It is described as having no windows through which it can look out upon the rest of the universe, but as mirroring the whole universe within itself. But because each monad mirrors the whole universe, each is in so far like the others; the perceptions in each are precisely alike in content ; the only diff'erence is that these perceptions may vary indefinitely in clearness and distinctness. Those monads in which all perceptions are obscure are called matter: from matter up to God there is no difference in kind, merely a difference in degree of clearness and distinctness of presentations. Monads are found in all stages of clearness of presentation, and each monad tends toward clarification and dis- tinction of these presentations. Those presenta- tions which are merely clear, but not distinct, i.e. which are not confused with others, but are not adequately known in themselves, are objects of empirical or contingent knowledge; those presentations which are both clear and distinct
