The Ens necessarium in Leibniz and his Interpreters
Abstract
In his criticism of the ontological proof of God’s existence, Leibniz does not generally reject this type of proof, but only the form it has been given by authors like Descartes and others. Therefore, he introduces the notion of “Ens necessarium”, “necessary being”, into the discussion. Some German authors have interpreted this notion as basis of a new type of ontological proof, whilst among English-writing commentators the same notion has been understood rather as a “simplification” of the classical proof. These different lines of interpretation will be discussed in my contribution, and a solution will be offered which avoids the problems the different approaches to the question have generated so far.
Keywords
Ontological proof | ens necessarium | ens perfectissimum | existence | Rene Descartes | German/English lines of interpretation | preuve ontologique | ens necessarium | ens perfectissimum | existence | René Descartes | tradition d’interpretation allemand/anglais | Ontologischer Gottesbeweis | ens necessarium | ens perfectissimum | Existenz | René Descartes | deutschsprachige/englischsprachige Auslegungstradition