Leibniz, la divine exactitude

Abstract

The article Leibniz, Divine Exactitude highlights a central paradox in Leibniz’s thought: although he is the philosopher of the principle of sufficient reason, his method is not systematic but fragmentary and “narrative.” This tension is reflected in his conception of irrationality, understood not as ontological but as stemming from human finitude and from the infinity folded within each monad. Through a critique of Cartesian physics, Leibniz develops a metaphysics of force and simple substance, in which each monad – an active and indivisible unity – expresses the totality of the universe from a singular point of view. “Divine exactitude” thus refers to a complete and accomplished rationality in God, which the human mind can only approach asymptotically through infinite analysis.