Notes on Discourse on Metaphysics (C)

(Originally written May 29, 2007 in Book 14)

Discourse on Metaphysics
G.W. Leibniz

(continued)

31.

- God's grace is truly grace
- We do not know how much and in what way God dispenses grace. Nor do we know why he chooses to dispense grace to some and why he chooses to withhold it from others
- Among possible beings there must be a person with a notion or idea contains the entire sequence of ordinary and extraordinary graces

32.

- "Substance contains all its events with all their circumstances" (Leibniz, 35).
- All other substances rely on God.
- God alone acts on other substances
- God alone brings about the communication and connection between other substances
- A soul is sufficient to itself with God
- A soul cannot perish without annihilation, the dissolution of the body cannot destroy that which is indivisible.

33.

- The perceptions of our senses, though they be clear, must necessarily contain some confused feeling because our body receives the impression of other bodies
- Without the ability to reflect, there can be no moral qualities. Thus, the animals cannot be moral entities though they have souls
- The intelligent soul knows what it is, can reflect upon itself and is therefore, a moral agent
- The knowledge of one's self is what renders the intelligent soul capable of merits or demerits, rewards or punishments

34.

- Immortality is required of substance, which is no substance perishes though it may become something different entirely, but for this to have religious/moral implications, one must have memory. This is, "I know I" and makes intelligent soul a desirable position.

35.

- God will always preserve our substance and our person.
- Our person is the memory and the knowledge of what we are
- God is the most perfect of all minds and the greatest of all beings.
- Minds are the closest beings to perfection because they most closely represent the divine
- The difference between intelligent souls and non-intelligent souls is the difference between a person looking into a mirror and their reflection

36.

- Minds are the most perfectible substances
- Minds alone can serve God freely
- The moral quality God possess makes Him the Lord of minds
- It is due to the moral quality God has, "that he humanizes himself, that he is willing to allow anthropomorphism, and that he enters into society with us, as prince with his subjects; and this consideration is so dear to him that the happy and flourishing state of his empire, which consists in the greatest possible happiness of its inhabitants, becomes the highest of his laws" (Leibniz, 40).
- God has ordained everything in such a way that minds live always and that always preserve their moral quality
- To make man perfectly happy, God only works for them to love Him.

37.
- The gospel has entirely changed the course of human history.
- God alone can make souls happy or unhappy.