Books
Leibniz's Discourse of Metaphysics
Congratulations to Christopher Johns on the publication of his new book Leibniz's Discourse of Metaphysics. A New Translation and Commentary, Edinburgh University Press (2023).
A fresh translation and in-depth commentary of Leibniz's seminal text. Written in 1686, Discourse on Metaphysics is one of the most important and widely published works in the history of philosophy. This translation and commentary by Christopher Johns has much new to offer. Based on the Akademie edition this is the first truly scholarly translation. Also included is historical and philosophical context, detailing Leibniz's activities during 1685 and 1686 and in several letters previously unpublished in English. These letters and texts illuminate important themes found in the Discourse and shed light on the intellectual context of the time and will be of particular interest to scholars and teachers of Leibniz.
Philosophy, Sciences and Theology in the Islamicate World of the Ninth Century
Congratulations to Emma Gannagé for the publication of Philosophy, Sciences and Theologyin the Islamicate World of the Ninth Century (Mélanges de l'Université Saint-Joseph 69 [2021-22] published 2023),which she edited with the collaboration of Pauline Koetschet (CNRS, Aix-Marseille) and Elvira Wakelnig (University of Vienna).
The articles gathered in these proceedings stem from an international conference co-organized by the three of them and held in Beirut on October 21-22, 2019.The conference was jointly supported by the Farouk Jabre Centre for Arabic and Islamic Science and Philosophy at the American University of Beirut and the joint project “Galen in Arabic (GAIA) –More than a Translation," with the participation of the Department of Philosophy at AUB and the Institut francais du Proche-Orient (IFPO).
Articles
Leibniz and the Religion of the Mohammadans
Congratulations to Christopher Johns on the publication of his new article "Leibniz's and the Religion of the Mohammadans" in Religions 15 (2024)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/15/9/1087
Throughout his correspondence and writings, Leibniz made a number of passing references to the religion of the Mohammadans (Islam) and to several Islamic commentators. Recent literature on these references has placed them in the context of Leibniz’s political and historical interests that largely reflect his Eurocentric prejudices. The purpose of this paper is to extract a more detailed and systematic view of Leibniz’s knowledge of and interest in the religion, through Leibniz’s remarks on Islam in relation to Christian doctrines such as the Trinity and the Incarnation, through the commentary of Maimonides and the Christian Averroists, and through a (partly speculative) comparison of three types of theodicy. The paper concludes that while Leibniz knew very little about Islam’s actual doctrines, and that he was subject to the prejudicial views of his time, he understood Islam, as he did Christianity, as largely in conformity with natural (rational) religion. At the same time, his interest in its specific doctrines was primarily instrumental, that is, as correctives to certain abusive practices and misunderstandings persisting within Christianity, which could then explain for him why Islam prevailed in the East.