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Leibniz's Doctrine of the Striving Possibles CHRISTOPHER SHIELDS LEIBNIZ'S DOCTRINE OF THE STRIVING POSSIBLES, that all true possibilities demand existence and will exist if not prevented, strikes the modem reader as perplexing, if not perverse. Nonetheless, Leibniz invokes the doctrine of the striving possibles frequently and in key passages. He regards it as directly relevant to the creation of the actual world, * the contingency of the actual world,* the compossibility of substances,s and indeed, to God's existence.~ The doctrine of the striving possibles, however, seems plainly inconsistent with a number of Leibnizian principles. For example, Leibniz maintains that God freely chooses to create the maximal compossible set of potential substances . Also, Leibniz subscribes to the Aristotelian principle that only an actually exisdng being can cause a potentially exisdng being to exist in actuality ; if possibles demand and become actual without the agency of some actual being, Leibniz seems to have flatly contradicted himself. It is certainly a challenge to attempt to render Leibniz consistent. But it is a rewarding task, for in the process of deciding whether or not Leibniz is consistent, one begins to unravel a supremely subtle metaphysical system, a system in which the doctrine of the striving possibles plays a central role. In the final analysis, Leibniz does not need to be rendered consistent so much as understood. I.THE FIGURATIVE VIEW David Blumenfeld's "Leibniz's Theory of the Striving Possibles''5 is easily the best discussion of some of the problems revolving around Leibniz's doctrine. i See Leroy, E. Loemker, ed., PhilosophicalPapers and Letters(Dordrecht and Boston: Reidel Publishing Co., 1969), 648. ' See Loemker, 488. See Loemker, 158. 4 See Loemker, 167. David Blumenfeld, "Leibniz's Theory of the Striving Possibles," Studia Leibnitiana 0973): 163-77, reprinted in R. S. Woolhouse, Leibniz: Metaphysicsand Philosophy of Science (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980, 77-99. All references are to the latter pagination. [343] 344 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 24:3 JULY 1986 Blumenfeld attacks these problems directly and advances a clear, intelligent, and initially persuasive solution. Accordingly, his view deserves careful consideration . Though in the final analysis I disagree with Blumenfeld's main solution, I find a great many of his suggestions quite insightful. Blumenfeld begins by citing some of the important evidence for Leibniz 's doctrine of the striving possibles. The first comes from one of our most important sources for Leibniz's views on creation and the theory of the striving possibles, On the Ultimate Origin of Things: "We ought first to recognize that from the very fact that something exists rather than nothing , there is in possible things.., a certain exigent need of existence, and, so to speak, some claim to existence: in a word, that essence tends of itself towards existence. Whence it further follows that all possible things... tend by equal right towards existence, according to their quantity of essence or reality, or according to the degree of perfection which they contain .... Hence it is most clearly understood that among the infinite combinations of possibles and possible series, that one actually exists by which the most of essence or of possibility is brought into existence. ''6 In addition to this, Blumenfeld also cites the following passages: "Everything possible demands that it should exist, and hence wilt exist unless something else prevents it, which also demands that it should exist and is incompatible with the former; and hence it follows that that combination of things always exists by which the greatest possible number of things exists.... And hence it is obvious that things exist in the most perfect way.''7 "And as possibility is the principle of essence, so perfection or degree of essence (through which the greatest number is at the same dme possible) is the principle of existence. ''s Based upon these passages, Blumenfeld correcdy ascribes six theses to Leibniz:9 (1) all possibles tend toward existence (each "has an impetus to exist"); (2) this impetus is direcdy proportionate to the degree of perfection in the possible; (3) all possible worlds contend with one another for actual existence; (4) there is a unique compossible set which has the greatest thrust; (5) the inevitable result...

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