Leibniz, Whitehead and the Metaphysics of Causation

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

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2. Introduction: From Leibniz to Whitehead

   • Pierfrancesco Basile

   Pages 1-6

3. The Conception of Substance: Whitehead, Russell, and Leibniz

   • Pierfrancesco Basile

   Pages 7-31

4. The Relevance of Leibniz: Ward’s Theory of Monads

   • Pierfrancesco Basile

   Pages 32-62

5. The Phenomenology of Causation: Whitehead and Hume

   • Pierfrancesco Basile

   Pages 63-83

6. The Metaphysics of Causation: Whitehead, Hume, and James

   • Pierfrancesco Basile

   Pages 84-105

7. The Reality of Forms: Whitehead’s Theistic Argument

   • Pierfrancesco Basile

   Pages 106-124

8. The Final View: The Dipolar Conception of God

   • Pierfrancesco Basile

   Pages 125-143

9. Epilogue: Is a Leibnizian Metaphysics Still Possible Today?

   • Pierfrancesco Basile

   Pages 144-147

10. Back Matter

    Pages 148-174

    PDF

Introduces the reader to Whitehead's complex and often misunderstood metaphysics by showing that it deals with questions about the nature of causation originally raised by the philosophy of Leibniz. Whitehead's philosophy is an attempt at rehabilitating Leibniz's theory of monads by recasting it in terms of novel ontological categories

• David Hume
• Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
• knowledge
• metaphysics
• philosophy

PIERFRANCESCO BASILE teaches Philosophy at the University of Bern, Switzerland. His publications include Experience and Relations: An Examination of F. H. Bradley's Conception of Reality (1999) and several articles and edited books on the origin of analytic philosophy, British idealism and process philosophy. 

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