Œuvres philosophiques
The first collected edition of Leibnitz's philosophical works in French and Latin, containing the first printing of one of Leibnitz' most important philosophical works, his “Nouveaux essays sur l'entendement humain”.
An attractive wide-margined and pure copy of the 1st edition 1st printing, before corrections, preserved in contemporary binding.
In-4 de (4), XVI, (2), 540, (18) pp.
Veau marbré, filet à froid encadrant les plats, dos à nerfs richement orné, pièce de titre en maroquin, double filet or sur les coupes, tranches rouges. Reliure de l’époque.
255 x 194 mm.
Leibnitz, Gottfried Wilhelm. Œuvres philosophiques latines & françoises.
Amsterdam & Leipzig, Jean Schreuder, 1765.
Rare first edition thus, being the first collected edition of Leibnitz's philosophical works in French and Latin, containing the first printing of one of Leibnitz's most important philosophical works, his “Nouveaux essays sur l'entendement humain”, in which he attacks and refutes Locke and his "Essay on Human Understanding" and gives important testimony to his own philosophical ideas.
With its 496 pages, this extensive work takes up most of this collection of philosophical works, and also constitutes one of his largest and most important of his philosophical works.
The hugely famous work by Locke, in which he stated his famous theory that the mind of the newborn is like a blank slate (tabula rasa) and concluded that all ideas come from experience and that there are no such things as innate principles, was generally sharply criticized by the rationalists, the most important of them being Leibnitz.
Leibnitz's response, his "Les nouveaux essays sur l'entendement humain" constitutes the most important of the rationalist responses and it is written in the form of a chapter-by-chapter refutation.
He refutes the major premise of Locke's work, that the senses are the source of all understanding, primarily by adding to this "except the understanding itself", thus going on to distinguish between his three levels of understanding, which are part of the centre of his philosophy.
For Leibnitz as well as for Locke the great inspiration was Descartes, but they chose two fundamentally different directions, Locke the materialistic one and Leibnitz the idealistic one.
The present work represents the greatest clash between the two giants of late 17th century philosophy.
The effect of Leibnitz's work was enormous, and among the Germans he invoked a great passion for philosophical studies. Leibnitz represents a striking contrast to both Locke with his empiricism and Spinoza.
A beautiful wide-margined copy of the first edition first printing, before corrections, preserved in its contemporary binding.
