Divine Machines: Leibniz and the Sciences of Life (review)

This book is an in-depth scholarly exploration of the philosophical work of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Justin Smith, by investigating Leibniz's interest in the life sciences, many of which were only just emerging in the 17th century, sheds new light on how these "sciences" influenced Leibniz's overall philosophical doctrines. Divine Machines is extremely well written and a pleasure to read; however, it is not really a book suitable for general readership. For philosophers, students and those interested in the history of ideas, the book will prove most rewarding. Leibniz's philosophy, in general, is not easy to fully comprehend, but Smith helps clarify some of the more abstruse concepts through his detailed discussion of Leibniz's grounding in the empirical life sciences. Leibniz explored such diverse disciplines as medicine, taxonomy, physiology, generation theory (now genetics) and paleontology, which helped him formulate his major metaphysical theory—Monadology.

This book is divided into four parts, which follow an excellent Introduction. Part One, First Things, consists of Chapters 1 and 2. Part Two, From Animal Economy to Subtle Anatomy, is composed of Chapters 3 and 4. Part Three, The Origins of Organic Form, includes Chapters 5 and 6. Part Four, Species, is Chapter 7. These four parts are followed by five Appendices, which are examples of Leibniz's own writings. Chapter notes, an excellent bibliography and an index then follow these fascinating appendices. The information in the appendices includes:

• Appendix 1: Directions Pertaining to the Institution of Medicine (1671)

• Appendix 2: The Animal Machine (1677)

• Appendix 3: The Human Body, Like That of Any Animal, Is a Sort of a Machine (1680-1686)

• Appendix 4: On Writing the New Elements of Medicine (1682-1683) Appendix 5: On Botanical Method (1701)

The term "natural philosophy" (philosophia naturalis) in the 17th century was an umbrella title used to cover all disciplines of what have now become separate sciences. Smith uses the modern name biology for our clarity, as there was no such "science" in Leibniz's time. Smith's main concern is to show how to understand Leibniz through his biological investigations. This is at odds with the predominant view that Leibniz was mainly influenced by logic, language, mathematics and theology. Herein lies the importance of this book and what assures it a place in the scholarly literature concerning the greats of philosophy and modern thinking.

As an extra bonus, this book gives us an exciting glimpse into the way of investigation and thinking throughout the 17th century. This brought home to me, quite profoundly, just how little humans knew about the fundamental workings of the world in this era and how much we have learnt since then. Two examples: Our recent understanding of DNA coding; secondly, our current ability to do fMRI scans to see the human brain actually working. But it also brought about a sense of humility, in that in 400 years' time, humans (if we are still here) will similarly marvel at how ignorant we early 21st-century scientists, scholars and philosophers were!

Smith's study gives an almost palpable sense of the struggle these early modern thinkers went through. Many other great thinkers—especially Aristotle, Galen, Descartes and Hobbes—quite naturally influenced Leibniz. He always expressed his debt to those who influenced his thinking, even when he was at odds with them, especially Descartes. Commenting on Descartes's account of human embryogenesis, for example, Leibniz derides "Monsieur des Cartes with his man, the generation of whom costs so little, but who so little resembles a true man." Yet at the same time, Leibniz never denies the enormous debt of his own philosophy to Cartesian mechanism (p. 10). This book is a scholarly tour de force; it challenges the existing understanding of Leibniz's philosophy and opens up many areas for further research. No doubt it is essential reading for all those engaged in research into the history...