• Home
  • About The Mod Squad

The Mod Squad

A Group Blog in Modern Philosophy

Feeds:
Posts
Comments
« Browne and Berkeley on the Influence of Words
Berkeley on Divine and Human Spirits »

Leibnizian Supercomprehension

April 25, 2019 by Kenny Pearce

In a recent paper, Juan Garcia has argued that Leibniz is, in an important sense, “a friend of Molinism.”1 For those who are familiar with contemporary versions of Molinism (e.g., Flint), this suggestion is rather surprising, since Leibniz is clearly a theological determinist: he holds that God chooses every detail of the actual world. Further, a key feature of Molinism (particularly as it is understood in recent analytic philosophy) is the idea that God’s options for creation are limited by contingent but prevolitional counterfactuals of creaturely freedom. The contrary assumption, that God could have actualized any possible world, was dubbed by Plantinga, ‘Leibniz’s Lapse’. Now, Plantinga is clearly unfair in calling this a ‘lapse’: it’s a theoretical commitment Leibniz embraces clear-sightedly, with awareness that there are alternatives to it and that it has some implausible-looking consequences. Nevertheless, Leibniz does embrace this view. As a result, Leibniz surrenders the two main advantages typically assigned to Molinism in recent analytic philosophy: the ability to combine theological libertarianism with strong providence, and any Plantinga-style free will defence.

Still, Leibniz’s view does have significant similarities with Molinism and seem to employ some Molinist strategies. The main burden of Garcia’s article is to argue that Leibniz holds that counterfactuals of creaturely freedom are contingent and that God knows them prevolitionally. This seems right in a certain sense or to a certain extent, but the key issue (which Garcia does not discuss) is how Leibniz can maintain this, and here Leibniz’s notoriously weak notion of contingency is doing real work.

According to traditional Molinism, an agent’s essence or character does not include all the facts about what the agent would do in hypothetical situations, because this would render the agent’s actions in those situations necessary. Nevertheless, God ‘supercomprehends’ this essence or character in order to know facts that go beyond what is included in it. It is in this way that God knows what the agent would do.2

This doctrine is rather obscure. It leaves unexplained how or why these facts could be true of this essence. (This is, of course, a version of the ‘grounding objection’.) It also seems to have God seeing in the essence something that isn’t there.

Leibniz, however, is able to give an account of how this works. In the Arnauld correspondence, Leibniz says that, in deciding to create Adam, God employs a ‘complete individual concept’ (CIC) of Adam which includes, essentially, an entire possible world. This is because the CIC must include everything that can be truly predicated of Adam, and there are true propositions such as Adam lived before I wrote this blog post. Hence, my writing this post is included in Adam’s CIC.

How, then, can any of Adam’s actions be contingent? In a certain sense they can’t, and Leibniz makes important use of this in his discussions of the problem of evil. (See the discussion of Judas in the Discourse on Metaphysics and the discussion of Sextus at the end of Theodicy.) Arnauld, therefore, objects that Leibniz’s view falsely implies that he (Arnauld) is necessarily a celibate theologian. In fact (Arnauld says) he could instead have been a married physician. Leibniz responds by diagnosing a kind of ambiguity: this Arnauld (the one in the actual world) is necessarily a celibate theologian, but there are other Arnaulds, in other possible worlds, who are married physicians. (I’ve written about this before.) This, according to Leibniz, gives us enough contingency for moral responsibility and so forth.

This ambiguity, it seems to me, is what allows Leibniz to combine these Molinist principles with theological determinism. God knows precisely what will happen if God creates this Arnauld. At the same time, it is contingent that Arnauld, in these circumstances, becomes a celibate theologian.

On the other hand, Leibniz’s strategy does not make what is perhaps the most characteristic move of both historical and contemporary Molinism: he does not open up any middle ground between natural knowledge and free knowledge. That Arnauld, placed in these circumstances, would freely decide to become a celibate theologian is true (on the interpretation on which it is contingent) because God decided to create this Arnauld, rather than one of those other Arnaulds. Hence this is part of God’s free knowledge. That this Arnauld freely so decides is necessary, since it follows from his CIC. (Leibniz often seems like he wants to wriggle out of the conclusion that this is necessary, even when we specify this Arnauld, but the comments about Judas and Sextus and so forth seem to push the other direction.) Thus it is Leibniz’s view that counterfactuals of creaturely freedom are systematically ambiguous, and on one interpretation they are part of God’s natural knowledge while on another they are part of God’s free knowledge.

(Cross-posted at blog.kennypearce.net.)


Notes

  1. A while back, Brandon Watson also suggested, in a blog comment, that Leibniz can be understood as endorsing a kind of ‘modified Molinism’.
  2. I rely on Adams for this characterization of ‘supercomprehension’.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged free will, leibniz, Molinism |

  • Recent Posts

    • Margaret Cavendish’s Philosophical Letters
    • Latitudinarian vs High-Church Philosophy: Two Contrasts
    • Berkeley on Divine and Human Spirits
    • Leibnizian Supercomprehension
    • Browne and Berkeley on the Influence of Words
  • Contributors

    • beckocopenhaver
    • Chloe Armstrong
    • -
    • Colin Heydt
    • Eugene Marshall
    • LisaShapiro
    • Joshua M. Wood
    • Julia Jorati
    • juliekrwalsh
    • Kenny Pearce
    • Lewis Powell
    • Antonia LoLordo
    • Colin McLear
    • modsquadguest
    • marcy p lascano
    • sethbordner
    • Stewart Duncan
    • Sydney Penner
    • Timothy Yenter
    • Jessica Gordon-Roth
    • Kirsten Walsh
  • Recent Comments

    Stewart Duncan on Margaret Cavendish’s Phi…
    Jonathan Shaheen on Margaret Cavendish’s Phi…
    Sam Rickless on Berkeley’s Manuscript In…
    Locke’s Populi… on Stillingfleet on the “Fu…
    Kenny Pearce on Descartes and the Rise of the…
    Margaret Atherton on Descartes and the Rise of the…
  • Archives

    • April 2021
    • July 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • December 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • February 2018
    • January 2018
    • October 2017
    • September 2017
    • August 2017
    • June 2017
    • March 2017
    • February 2017
    • January 2017
    • December 2016
    • November 2016
    • October 2016
    • August 2016
    • June 2016
    • May 2016
    • April 2016
    • March 2016
    • February 2016
    • January 2016
    • December 2015
    • November 2015
    • October 2015
    • September 2015
    • August 2015
    • June 2015
    • May 2015
    • April 2015
    • March 2015
    • February 2015
    • January 2015
    • December 2014
    • November 2014
    • October 2014
    • September 2014
    • August 2014
    • July 2014
    • June 2014
    • May 2014
    • April 2014
    • March 2014
    • February 2014
    • January 2014
    • December 2013
    • November 2013
    • October 2013
    • September 2013
    • August 2013
    • July 2013
    • June 2013
    • April 2013
    • March 2013
    • February 2013
    • January 2013
    • December 2012
    • November 2012
    • October 2012
    • September 2012
    • August 2012
    • July 2012
    • June 2012
    • May 2012
    • April 2012
    • March 2012
    • February 2012
    • January 2012
  • Blogroll

    • blog.kennypearce.net
    • Early Modern Experimental Philosophy
    • Early Modern Thought Online
    • Feminist History of Philosophy
    • Horseless Telegraph
    • Peter Adamson's Blog
  • Modern Philosophy Resources

    • Early English Books Online
    • Early Modern Philosophy Calendar
    • Early Modern Texts
    • New York City Early Modern Events
    • NYC Early Modern Events
    • PhilEvents.org
    • PhilPapers.org
    • Project Vox
    • Society for Modern Philosophy
  • Categories

    • Authors and critics
    • Ergo discussions
    • Meta
    • Sentimental Sundays
    • Uncategorized
  • Meta

    • Register
    • Log in
    • Entries feed
    • Comments feed
    • WordPress.com

Blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • The Mod Squad
    • Join 136 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • The Mod Squad
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
%d bloggers like this: