Monadology

THE MONADOLOGY OF LEIBNIZ
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ordinary meaning of the term. It is a dictionary only in form. It consists of articles on celebrated men of all ages in alphabetical order, but to all intents and purposes the articles are merely a convenience of the author, enabling him to express his own opinions under the guise of criticizing those of his contemporaries. According to one of his eulogists Likely referring to Pierre Des Maizeaux, whose biography of Bayle helped cement his posthumous reputation. he knew quite well that he was not a philosopher of the first rank, who could impress his readers by the novelty and originality of his doctrine, and therefore he devised this unusual mode of expression to compel attention and secure an audience. Voltaire has described him in his caustic manner: "An admirable dialectician rather than a profound philosopher, he knew almost nothing of physics. He was ignorant of the discoveries of the great Newton, and almost all of his philosophical articles assume or combat a Cartesianism that no longer exists." original: "Dialecticien admirable plus que profond philosophe il ne savait presque rien en physique. Il ignorait les découvertes du grand Newton, et presque tous ses articles philosophiques supposent ou combattent un Cartésianisme qui ne subsiste plus." Voltaire in this shows his own prejudice for at the time Bayle was writing Cartesianism Cartesianism: The philosophy of René Descartes, which dominated 17th-century thought by prioritizing rationalism and a mechanistic view of nature. was the prevalent philosophy, the only philosophy then generally recognized as modern in contrast with scholasticism Scholasticism: The traditional school of philosophy taught in medieval universities, based on a synthesis of Aristotelian logic and Christian theology.. Bayle wittily compared himself to Homer’s cloud-compelling Zeus Referring to the Homeric epithet Nephelēgereta; here it implies a thinker who stirs up the "clouds" of intellectual doubt rather than clearing them away.. "My talent" he said "lies in formulating doubts, but they are only doubts." His works are voluminous and are all controversial. The Dictionary, which was successful and celebrated, was first published in 1696 and an enlarged