The Cambridge Companion to Leibniz (review)

i4~ JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 35:1 JANUARY 1997 The essays in this volume are consistently interesting and illuminating, and it should be a useful and stimulating resource for Spinoza scholars, for philosophers generally, and even for general readers looking for something more than the ordinary, summary-type of introduction to a philosopher's system. My only complaint is that there could have been more contributions by European and other scholars. Some truly important work on Spinoza is being done by Dutch, French, Italian, German, and Israeli scholars, and while their work is amply represented in the fine bibliography in the back of the volume, I would have liked to have seen them given the opportunity to present their latest work. Anyone working on Spinoza's thought knows how philosophically important his letters are. We should also be glad, then, for the complete translation of Spinoza's extant correspondence by Samuel Shirley, which will make those letters more accessible to a wider audience. Coming sixty-seven years after the first English translation by A. Wolf, this new translation, while based on the texts established by Gebhardt (soon to be superseded by the critical edition being prepared by the Groupe de recherches spinozistes), includes the more recently discovered letters and takes into account the latest research. The translation by Shirley is, like his translation of the Ethics (Hackett, 1982), both accurate and readable. It is prefaced by a very useful introduction (by Steven Barbone, Lee Rice, and Jacob Adler) that, in addition to providing biographical information on Spinoza, introduces the reader to Spinoza's correspondents and situates Spinoza's works and letters in their seventeenth-century intellectual and religious context. Since Curley's two-volume translation of Spinoza's works will also include the complete correspondence, and will be the standard English edition consulted by Spinoza scholars, it is hoped that Hackett will soon publish a paperback edition of Shirley's translation, making it more available for classroom use. Then they should commission a translation of the Theological-PoliticalTreatise, also for classroom use. STEVEN NADLER University of Wisconsin, Madison Nicholas Jolley, editor. The Cambridge Companion to Leibniz, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994. Pp. xi + 5oo. Cloth, $59.95, Paper, $18.95. The book under review is another in the Cambridge Companion Series, offering specially commissioned articles from leading scholars on distinct topics. As with all the Cambridge Companions, the primary audience is intended to be advanced undergraduates , graduate students, and non-specialists, who can benefit most from short articles on specific topics on the thought of a particular thinker. The CambridgeCompanion to Leibniz includes twelve articles: Roger Ariew's "G. W. Leibniz: Life and Works," Stuart Brown's "The Seventeenth-Century Intellectual Background," Christia Mercer and R. C. Sleigh's "Metaphysics: The Early Period to the Discourse on Metaphysics," Donald Rutherford's, "Metaphysics: The Late Period" and "Philosophy and Language in Leibniz," Robert McRae's "The Theory of Knowledge," G. H. R. Parkinson's "Philosophy and Logic," Daniel Garber's "Leibniz: Physics and Philosophy," David BOOK REVIEWS 143 Blumenfeld's "Leibniz's Ontological and Cosmological Arguments" and "Perfection and Happiness in the Best Possible World," Gregory Brown's "Leibniz's Moral Philosophy ," and Catherine Wilson's "The Reception of Leibniz in the Eighteenth Century." Since it is impossible to treat all that is in this volume in such a short space, I shall concentrate on the two essays on Leibniz's metaphysics, which are perhaps the most valuable of the entire collection of essays--valuable for both beginning students and experts alike. In just over one hundred pages, these two essays combine to give a detailed picture of the development of Leibniz's metaphysics and a sophisticated account of some of the problems with which Leibniz concerned himself. The picture that emerges of the development of Leibniz's metaphysics is a welcome change from most introductory treatments of his philosophy, which only sketch out the theory of monads . It is important to see how Leibniz came to hold a view that most would regard as fantastic or fanciful; and it is important to see that, while many theses remained constant, Leibniz's metaphysics was not monolithic and that...