Franckfurt, Bencard, 1719. 8vo. Contemp. full vellum. A few small brownspots to covers. Large engraved titlevignette. (48),(40),408,(12) pp. 1 folded table (between p.48/49). Clean and fine.
Extremely scarce first Latin edition of Leibniz's hugely influential work ""Essais de Theodicée sur la Bonté de Dieu, la Liberté de L'Homme, et L'Origine du Mal"" (1710). It is his importent treatise on the goodnes of God, the free will of man and the causes of evil in the world, The principal subject of the work being the problem of liberty and free will. It is the only larger philosophical work published by Leibnitz himself.The ""Théodicée"" was a response to skeptical Pierre Bayle, who wrote in his work Dictionnaire Historique et Critique that, after rejecting three attempts to solve it, he saw no rational solution to the problem of evil.The work was composed at the instigation of Sophia Charlotte, with whom Leibniz had conversed concerning the views of Bayle. In response to a request from Prince Eugene for an abstract of the Théodicée, Leibniz in 1714 wrote the ""Principes de la nature et de la grâce fondées en raison and the Monadologie"".It is often the case, that this Latin edition is followed by the small work ""Causa Dei Asserta per Justitiam Ejus..."" (32) pp. This work is not withbound here.Ravier ""Bibliographie des Oeuvres de Leibniz"", No 344. - PMM (1710-edition).
Hannover, Zu finden bey Nicolai Försters und Sohns sel. Erben, 1735. 8vo. Cont.full vellum w. author and title in old hand on back. Bdg. a bit soiled. Internally a bit of brownspotting., title-page w. professionally repaired tear. Inner front-hinge starting to crack, but bdg. and bookblock tight. Overall a good and fairly well preserved copy. With engr. portrait, woodcut vignettes and one folded engr. plate depicting an early calculating machine. (28), 64, 1030 pp.
Rare third German edition. Last Richter-edition. First published in French in 1710. It is the only larger philosophical work, Leibnitz himself published and it is a work of immense importance to philosophy, theology and mathematics. In this work Leibniz represents his excellent calculating machine, which has served as the basis for what we now call a computer, as he presents the binary arithmetic, ""Rechnen mit Null und Eins"" (""calculating with zero and one"") in the Beylage (p. 926), which forms the basis for the much later developed computer science (see PMM 177). This work contains ""Anmerkungen"" by Richter and ""Lebens=Beschreibung"" by Fontenelle, followed by ""Beylage"". In these ""Beylage"" we find the method of converting numbers into the binary system, which here is said to be ""etwas recht neues, welches der Herr Leibnitz zu Hanover erfunden"" (""something brand new, which Mr. Leibnitz von Hanover has discovered"") as well as ""Eine Schrift. In welcher klar gezeiget wird/ dass nicht Herr Neuton,sondern der Herr von Leibnitz Erfinder des CALCULI DIFFERENTIALIS sey."" (A Treatise. In which it is clearly shown/ that Mr. Leibniz and not Mr. Newton is the inventor of the CALCULI DIFFERENTIALIS"").All early editions of the Theodicee are rare. See D.S.B.: VIII, pp. 161-166.
Amsterdam et Leipzig, Chez Jean Schreuder, 1765. 4to. Uncut in the original marbled boards. Professionally rebacked preserving almost all of the original back. The fragile orginal binding is here preserved in its entirety, and it has quite a bit of overall wear. Apart from a small hole to two leaves in the index, affecting ab. one work on each of the four pages, it is internally nice and clean. Title-page printed in red and black. Beautiful eng. title-vignette and a few other woodcut vignettes and initials. (4), XVI, (2), 540, (18) pp.
First edition thus, being the first collected edition of Leibnitz' philosophical works in French and Latin, and containing the FIRST PRINTING of one of Leibnitz' most important philosophical works, his ""Nouveaux essays sur l'entendement humain"" (New Essays on Human Understanding), in which he attacks and refutes Locke and his ""Essay on Human Understanding"" and gives important testimony to his own philosophical ideas. With its 496 pages, this extensive work takes up most of this collection of philosophical works, and it also constitutes one of his largest and most important of his philosophical works. As explained by Raspe, the editor, in his preface to this publication, ""LES NOUVEAUX ESSAIS SUR L'ENTENDEMENT HUMAIN, qui sont la partie principale de recueil, sont connûs trés imparfaitement par l'histoire de la Philosophie de Leibnitz, que Mr. Ludovici a publiée"" (p. X), and the reason why the work was known, even though it had not been published, is because of a letter that Leibnitz had written in 1714, in which he explains why he did not wish to publish the work. Raspe quotes the letter (p. X), from which it becomes clear that Leibnitz had not wished to publish an attack on Locke and his work, because Locke had died in 1704 (the same year that Leibnitz had actually written the work), and because Leibnitz was against publishing refutations of dead authors: ""Mais je me suis degouté de publier des refutations des Auteurs morts, quoiqu'elles dissent paroitre Durant leur vie & étre communiqués à eux memes"". Raspe points to the nobleness of this decision, but he also points to what could be other reasons for Leibnitz not wishing to publish his seminal work, one of them being that towards the end of his life (he died in 1716), he did not wish to enter into any more controversies with the British, since he was already engaged in two very important ones that occuopied much of his time and energy: The first concerned the invention of the differential calculus, the second was against Mr. Clarke on liberty and important metaphysical and theological questions. Another reason could also be that he did not want to begin controversies with the friends of Locke, who at that time were many and important.Locke's ""An Essay Concerning Human Understanding"", which is the work here being refuted by Leibnitz, became the crucial groundwork for the future empiricists with David Hume in the foreground, and thus Leibnitz' work, though published posthumously, probably came to play a bigger role in the history of philosophy than it would have done had it been published just after he wrote it. Few philosophers of his time were susceptible to Leibnitz' ideas and his application of logic to the problems of metaphysics, as most of them were far more receptive to Locke's empiricism. However, when Leibnitz' ""Nouveaux essays..."" was finally published here in his ""Oeuvres philosophiques"" in 1765, it became hugely influential and was also an important factor in the development of Kant's transcendental philosophy.The hugely famous work by Locke, in which he stated his famous theory that the mind of the newborn is like a blank slate (tabula rasa) and concluded that all ideas come from experience and that there are no such things as innate principles, was generally sharply criticized by the rationalists, the most important of them being Leibnitz. Leibnitz' response, his ""Les nouveaux essays sur l'entendement humain"" constitutes the most important of the rationalist responses and it is written in the form of a chapter-by-chapter refutation. He refutes the major premise of Locke's work, that the senses are the source of all understanding, primarily by adding to this ""except the understanding itself"", thus going on to distinguish between his three levels of understanding, which are part of the centre of his philosophy.For Leibnitz as well as for Locke the great inspiration was Descartes, but they chose two fundamentally different directions, Locke the materialistic one and Leibnitz the idealistic one. The present work represents the greatest clash between the two giants of late 17th century philosophy. The effect of Leibnitz' work was enormous, and among the Germans he invoked a great passion for philosophical studies. Leibnitz represents a striking contrast to both Locke with his empiricism and Spinoza. One earlier collection of some of Leibnitz' works had been printed before this one, but it did not contain his ""New Essays on Human Understanding"", and only consisted of his ""Smaller Philosophical Works"". This is the German 1740-edition ""Kleinere philosohische Schriften"". The other writings contained in this publication are ""Examen du sentiment du P. Malebranche que nous voyons tout en Dieu"", """"Dialogus de connexione inter res & verba"", ""Difficultates quaedam Logicae"", ""Discours touchant la methode de la certitude & de l'art d'inventer"", ""Historia et commendatio charactericae universalis quae simul sit ars inveniendi"".Graesse IV:152.
(Berlin, Haude et Spener, 1759). 4to. No wrappers as issued in ""Memoires de l'Academie Royale des Sciences et Belles Lettres"". tome XIII, 1757. Titlepage (Classe de Philosophie Spéculative) and pp. (451-)522.
First appearance of this remarkable, mathematical correspondance, comprising 29 letters mostly of mathematical content, and after the death of Herman leading to some controveries in relation to priorities.Ravier ""Bibliographie des Oeuvres de Leibniz"" No. 465.
Amsterdam, D. Mortier, 1720. Bound in one contemporary full calf. Spine richly blindtooled. XLI,(3),520 pp. + 1 fold. table. A fine clean copy.
The scarce third edition of Leibnitz' importent treatise on the goodnes of God, the free will of man and the causes of evil in the world, The principal subject of the work being the problem of liberty and free will. It is the only larger philosophical work published by Leibnitz himself.Ravier No 67 (the first ed. from 1710) - PMM: 177 (1710-edition).