Sign-In
Cart
Leibniz's Account of Freedom, Determinism, and Moral Responsibility
Paperback
Publisher: Colloquium Verlag
Published: Oct 25 2025
Pages: 234
Weight: 0.61
Height: 0.49 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
This book reimagines one of history's most rigorous rationalists as a thinker for our age. This accessible, argument-driven book shows how Leibniz's metaphysics-monads, complete concepts, and a careful taxonomy of necessity-can sustain a powerful, humane account of moral responsibility: one that preserves intelligible reasons for action, protects individual dignity, and still admits genuine alternatives. Moving from metaphysical foundations through moral psychology to practical politics, the book turns abstruse debates about providence and determinism into clear guidance for punishment, forgiveness, civic education, and criminal justice reform.
Written for scholars, policy-makers, and thoughtful readers, the book combines close textual reading with contemporary relevance. It argues that Leibniz offers a middle way between harsh fatalism and untethered voluntarism-an approach that vindicates praise and blame while insisting that institutions cultivate clearer perception, proportional sanction, and real avenues for rehabilitation. Provocative, humane, and timely, this work makes a compelling case that recovering Leibniz's modal subtlety can reshape modern conversations about freedom, responsibility, and the moral limits of state power.
Also from
Knowles, Austin
Religious Morality and Secular Ethics: How Divine Command Theory Contrasts with Humanist and Rationalist Approaches
Knowles, Austin
Paperback
Metaphysics and The Monadology: The Development of Leibniz's Unique Metaphysical System
Knowles, Austin
Paperback
The Western Ethical Traditions: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and the Evolution of Virtue Ethics
Knowles, Austin
Paperback
Leviathan's Shadow: The 17th Century Philosophical Responses to Hobbesian Political Theory
Knowles, Austin
Paperback
Also in
Philosophy
Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea
Hunt-Hendrix, Leah
Taylor, Astra
Hardcover
In the Beginning Was the Deed: Realism and Moralism in Political Argument
Williams, Bernard
Paperback
The American Indian Mind in a Linear World: American Indian Studies and Traditional Knowledge
Fixico, Donald Lee
Paperback
Dreaming of Cinema: Spectatorship, Surrealism, and the Age of Digital Media
Lowenstein, Adam
Paperback
Machine Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm: Spiritual Freedom and the Re-Animation of Matter
Lafitte, Luke
Paperback
The Sociogony: Social Facts and the Ontology of Objects, Things, and Monsters
Worrell, Mark P.
Paperback
On Quality: An Inquiry Into Excellence: Unpublished and Selected Writings
Pirsig, Robert M.
Pirsig, Wendy K.
Hardcover
The Electromagnetic Brain: Em Field Theories on the Nature of Consciousness
Joye, Shelli Renée
Paperback
Philosophy in Turbulent Times: Canguilhem, Sartre, Foucault, Althusser, Deleuze, Derrida
Roudinesco, Elisabeth
Paperback
The New Science of Giambattista Vico: Unabridged Translation of the Third Edition (1744) with the Addition of Practic of the New Science
Vico, Giambattista
Paperback
The Persuaders: At the Front Lines of the Fight for Hearts, Minds, and Democracy
Giridharadas, Anand
Hardcover
The Dream of Reason: A History of Philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance
Gottlieb, Anthony
Paperback
The Modes of Scepticism: Ancient Texts and Modern Interpretations
Barnes, Jonathan
Julia, Annas
Annas, Julia
Paperback
Friendship and Society: An Introduction to Augustine's Practical Philosophy
Burt, Donald X.
Paperback
Suffering and the Search for Meaning: Contemporary Responses to the Problem of Pain
Rice, Richard
Paperback
Essays V2: Moral And Entertaining On The Various Faculties And Passions Of The Human Mind (1815)
Clarendon, Edward Hyde Earl of
Paperback
The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
Hanselman, Stephen
Holiday, Ryan
Hardcover
The Mattering Instinct: How Our Deepest Longing Drives Us and Divides Us
Goldstein, Rebecca Newberger
Hardcover
The Obstacle Is the Way Expanded 10th Anniversary Edition: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials Into Triumph
Holiday, Ryan
Hardcover
Self-Help from the Middle Ages: What the Seven Deadly Sins Can Teach Us about Living
Jones, Peter
Hardcover
Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness
Godfrey-Smith, Peter
Paperback
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse Fifth Anniversary Limited Edition: The Global Bestseller
Mackesy, Charlie
Hardcover
Bless & Release: The physics of letting go-and wanting what's meant for you.
Laporte, Danielle
Paperback
The Ethical Slut, Third Edition: A Practical Guide to Polyamory, Open Relationships, and Other Freedoms in Sex and Love
Hardy, Janet W.
Easton, Dossie
Paperback
Eight Million Ways to Happiness: Wisdom for Inspiration and Healing from the Heart of Japan
Yoda, Hiroko
Hardcover
Self-Reliance and Nature: The Complete First and Second Series of Emerson's Essays
Emerson, Ralph Waldo
Hardcover