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In the next chapter, Leibniz will once again take up the question of the criteria for justice. This time, we can evaluate his most mature views. We will return to the definition of justice as charity of the wise, as well as to the Golden Rule, to voluntarism, to mathematical notions, to eternal truths of reason, to the three precepts of right, to pleasure, happiness, virtue, and perfection—and determine whether and in what sense a coherent theory of justice depends on the science of right. 202
CHAPTER SIX: MONITA AND MEDITATION: CAUSES AND NOTIONS IN THE SCIENCE OF RIGHT Chapter sections: 1. Introduction 2. The science of right in Monita quaedam ad Puffendorfii Principia 3. The science of right in Méditation sur la notion commune de la justice 4. Features of Leibniz’s Golden Rule 5. Two degrees of right: equality and equity 6. The third degree of right: piety and the spiritual disposition 7. Chapter conclusion: Truth, definition, obligation Section 1: Introduction “We may say that there are charitable men who are not just, which happens when the charity is somewhat irregular, but we cannot infer from this that there are just men who are not charitable; for charity and the rule of reason are included at the same time in justice” (Letter to Queen Sophie Charlotte, “On What is Independent of Sense and Matter,” 1702). 1 The above quotation expresses the basic idea behind this chapter: to understand the definition of justice as charity of the wise, one must understand that charity and the rule of reason are identical. But we must also understand that charity and the rule of reason derive from the science of natural right. We now come to a pair of late texts, the Méditation sur la notion commune de la justice (1702-03), and Monita quaedam ad Samuelis Puffendorfii Principia (1706). While much shorter than the Nova Methodus and Elementa, they are of major importance to Leibniz’s fully developed theory of justice. They are also important to his science of right as a whole. In the Meditation, I will examine Leibniz’s argument for a “common notion” or “formal reason” of justice. I show that the common notions are equality and equity, and that they form the core meaning of the two precepts of right, which are also called “strict justice” and “charity.” I also show that Leibniz’s unique version of the Golden Rule, or what he calls “the rule of reason,” expresses the two precepts, as well. Thus, this version of the Golden Rule is the “formal reason” for determining just and unjust actions. Leibniz does not make this point explicit in his argument. But once it is made explicit, we may then understand Leibniz’s ultimate definition of justice as charity of the wise. Since the arguments in the Meditation are motivated by Leibniz’s criticisms of voluntarism, it is important to examine Leibniz’s criticisms of Pufendorf’s voluntarism in the Monita. According to Leibniz, Pufendorf’s account of obligation, indeed, the whole of his jurisprudence, is grounded in “the command of a superior.” He argues that this account is incoherent, and goes on to claim that obligation is grounded in the “efficient causes of natural right,” which are “the nature of things” and “the precepts of right 1 AG 189 / G.6.503: “On peut dire qu'il y a des charitables qui ne sont point justes, ce qui arrive quand la charité n'est pas assez réglée; mais on n'en peut point inférer qu'il y a des justes qui ne sont point charitables; car dans la justice est comprise en même temps la charité et la règle de la raison.” 203
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Stony Brook University The official
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Copyright by Christopher Lowell Joh
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Abstract of the Dissertation The Sc
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The more power he has, the less lic
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Section 1: Introduction............
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show, however, that pleasure and lo
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CHAPTER ONE: SUBJECTIVE RIGHT AND T
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By a plan for studies we mean a cer
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that for Leibniz the science of jur
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of these sources. In (1) the ground
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etween “fact” on one hand and
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however ‘public utility’ is def
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Grotius’ two significations of
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obligatio. That is, conceptually sp
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one’s own body; furthermore, give
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words, the sense in which God is su
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ight of war and punishment to the S
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qualities are the ground of public
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what conforms to the best or perfec
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Beginning with jus strictum or what
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proportion to contribution, this is
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of equity. 117 Nevertheless, it app
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agrees with the distinction between
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eward or fear of punishment, nor si
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eflecting God’s perfection as muc
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second degrees. As a precept of pie
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of a set of prudential instructions
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In Drafts 5 and 6 Leibniz then appl
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egulated. As we will eventually see
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advantage connected with the disadv
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To see how this passage implies pru
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establishes three important positio
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Justice must (and will always) invo
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y making the “deduction” that t
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Leibniz also seems to think that th
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[determine] the truth of propositio
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Prudence, furthermore, cannot be se
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Once again, as was to be shown, dut
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own and other good. The first defin
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of the matter. The main considerati
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of any other good, even if pleasure
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failing to recognize that pleasure
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another. Leibniz’s “epagogic”
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of right. Since right is the moral
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critical diligence to his definitio
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constant, I say, not that it may no
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mode of right have different truth
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the four types of statements of the
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accommodates this principle in the
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overcome the heart, as the Germans
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(1). “A Person is one who (2) lov
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state, but in being unimpeded from
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the Meditation Leibniz says that th
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will be tacitly understood. Because
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probability of an action occurring
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perceive and direct the harmonious
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However, it ought to be recognized
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CHAPTER THREE: THE MIDDLE PERIOD: I
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deductive system of natural right.
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It appears that the “modes of rig
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The just—or permitted, forbidden,
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is the right from which humans act,
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normative character they must be un
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Precepts of Right (Leibniz, Digest)
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This passage is quite important and
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and penalties” but rather are abl
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of the three degrees in the same te
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It is interesting that Leibniz defi
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And since charity is the habit of l
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has also influenced the prevailing
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What must not be overlooked is that
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the wise, and many other things bes
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degrees is to be found in the sourc
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dealings, except when an important
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sacrifice our own happiness for the
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CHAPTER FOUR: LEIBNIZ’S DEMONSTRA
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terms used frequently throughout th
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these distinctions in demonstration
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It is important to state the distin
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Section 3. Demonstration in general
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that Leibniz has used for various p
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Page 173 and 174: Leibniz’s argument is this: To ma
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Page 179 and 180: arguments on innateness, we discove
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Page 189 and 190: follows where we left off on page 8
Page 191 and 192: As Leibniz has argued similarly in
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Page 213: proposition; rather, possessing a v
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Page 237 and 238: such a way that no one has a reason
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Page 253 and 254: as equity; justice as love) were de
Page 255 and 256: CHAPTER SEVEN: NECESSITY, OBLIGATIO
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Several points are notable here: Fi
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find the eternal rules of goodness
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Accordingly, the perfection of the
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an account of virtue. This shows, o
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H Hobbes, Thomas. 1651. Leviathan.
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Studia Leibniziana. Band 22. vol.2.
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Reiner, Hans. 1977. “Die Goldene
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