Leibniz on Consciousness and Reflection

Abstract

Leibniz's views on reflection and consciousness are rich and of considerable importance, not only in their own right, but also insofar as they are linked to other Leibnizian views, for example, claims about personal immortality, rationality, awareness of personal identity, and knowledge of innate ideas and necessary truths.

The mind–body problem and the role of pain: cross-fire between Leibniz and his Cartesian readers

“…A lot of articles have discussed Mc Rae's (1976) andKulstad's (1983) hypotheses on the relation between the five notions of perception, awareness, consciousness, apperception and reflection, a relation sometimes obscured by the fact that in French 'apercevoir' is a not technical verb (it means 'to notice') in opposition to 'aperception'. The problem is whether a sensation, as conscious, is a second-order perception (a perception of a perception).25 This view is consistent with Leibniz's references to his own gout attack in this correspondence (see letter to Remond, June 1715, GP III 644).…”