Johann Christoph Sturm was a professor at the University of Altdorf (where Leibniz himself had briefly studied). As a Cartesian, he had written in defence of Robert Boyle’s thesis that Nature should be understood in purely mechanical terms. Boyle had propounded the thesis in a number of works, including one entitled On Nature itself (1688). Sturm was attacked by Günther Christoph Schelhammer, a professor at Kiel, and he wrote a response entitled On the Idol of Nature (probably using ‘idol’ in the same sense as Francis Bacon, to mean a false representation).

Leibniz entered the fray with an article (in Latin) in the journal Acta Eruditorum (1698); and he took the opportunity to expound his own views. The full title is On Nature itself, or, or the intrinsic force and actions of creatures, in confirmation and illustration of the author’s dynamics.

I have selected a passage which is crucial for understanding Leibniz’s rejection of the Cartesian (and Spinozist) position that physical objects are nothing more than transitory modifications of infinite extension.

I have translated from Gerhardt’s Philosophischen Schriften, Vol. 4. The full text is in Francks and Woolhouse, pp. 209–222.

Go to the Index to Leibniz’s comments on Sturm