Essays on Theodicy

LA VIE

Philosophy just as far as any of those who have generally earned the finest and most just reputation.

Character of Kuhn, his other teacher.

Kuhn Joachim Kuhn (1647–1697) was a professor of Greek and philosophy. The author suggests he was less intellectually gifted than Leibniz's other mentors. was not nearly of this caliber. Unskilled in almost all other sciences, he knew only as much Mathematics as was necessary to teach it to students: an example that is neither rare at any time, nor specific to a single country. For the rest, being a dim and limited mind, Mr. Leibniz was soon more useful to him than he was to Mr. Leibniz.

Mr. Leibniz applies himself to Mathematics.

It is easy to imagine that Mr. Leibniz attached himself mainly or solely to Thomasius. The first advice he received from him was to learn Mathematics and the Language of the School This refers to the technical Latin vocabulary and formal logic used in Scholasticism, the traditional academic system of the Middle Ages that still dominated universities., without which one is often halted when reading the writings of even those modern philosophers who have most affected to distance themselves from it.

And to Scholastic Philosophy.

Mr. Leibniz appreciated this advice, and his own experience had already made him feel its necessity; for although he knew the Latin language well enough, he understood nothing of the writings of Descartes, nor those of several other authors he had found in a fine library his father had left, which was the most precious portion of his inheritance. The extreme desire he had to understand these books; the facility he found in conceiving, without any trouble, what occupies for a long time—and often without much fruit—the commonality of men; a diligence even rarer at that age than the facility...