Leibniz on the existence of atoms

Abstract

In this paper I present and evaluate Leibniz's two main arguments against the existence of atoms. In this context atoms are extended particles that are absolutely hard, homogeneous, indivisible, and indestructible by natural means. As we shall see, Leibniz's arguments are flawed in a very instructive way. The first argument is in tension with the claim that God created the best possible world. The second argument overgeneralizes in an undesirable way. However, as I shall discuss in the last section of the paper, even if the arguments are somehow defective, at least the first one contributes valuable insights to contemporary metaphysics.

Do Conflicting Intentions Give Rise to Multiple Demonstrative Reference? Reply to Mena

“…In some of these cases it appears to be intuitively clear what the conventional reference of the use of the demonstrative is, because one of the conflicting intentions appears to override the others. To use an example from the book, also used in Ricardo Mena's (2020) commentary, imagine that you and I are watching a group of people play soccer and one of them, who wears a yellow shirt, is clearly better than the others; I also think he is my bright philosophy of language student. Pointing to the yellow image, I say That's a really good player, intending to refer to the person I'm pointing at as represented by my very perception of him, and also intending to refer to my philosophy of language student as represented by the very description "my bright philosophy of language student".…”