Gottfried Leibniz

Gottfried Leibniz was a 17th-century philosopher and mathematician who contributed significantly to ideas about space, time, and causality. He believed that space is relational, meaning it exists through the relations between objects, rather than being an empty container. His concept of substance emphasized that true substances are individual entities, defined by their unique properties. Leibniz also proposed the principle of sufficient reason, asserting that everything happens for a reason. In mechanics, he anticipated ideas about motion and forces, laying groundwork for later developments in physics. His thoughts on modality explore the possibilities of existence and the nature of reality.