La logique de Leibniz
Paris: Felix Alcan, 1901. 8vo. xiv, 608 pp. FIRST EDITION. With numerous text illustrations. Contemporary morocco-backed marbled boards, a bit worn; interior good. Ownership signature dated 1932 on the half-title. Item #16145
First edition, a significant contribution to the understanding of Leibniz’s philosophy. Along with Bertrand Russell’s A critical exposition of the philosophy of Leibniz, which appeared a year earlier, these two books did more to further the acceptance of the importance of logic in Leibniz’s philosophy. “Although their accounts differ, Russell and Couturat both give prominence to Leibniz’s explanation of the principle of sufficient reason in terms of a more basic notion of propositional truth, articulated in the principle that in every true proposition, necessary or contingent, the concept of the predicate is contained in the concept of the subject. From this theory of truth, they argue, follow the most distinctive claims of Leibniz’s metaphysics, including the principle of the identity of indiscernibles, the complete concept theory of substance, and the theory of preestablished harmony” (Rutherford).
Couturat (1868-1914) was a French philosopher and mathematician. He lectured in philosophy and the philosophy of mathematics in Toulouse and at the University of Caen in Normandy before studying Leibniz while at Hannover, where he apparently had access to Leibniz’s unpublished works at the Royal Library. Couturat’s book remains unsurpassed as a survey of the full range of Leibniz’s work in logic and the philosophy of logic, the philosophy of language, and the philosophy of mathematics.
Price: $450.00