Leibniz: action, reason and aristotelism

Author(s)

André Chagas Ferreira de Souza

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2011-07-07

Examining board members

Luiz Henrique Lopes dos Santos; Marisa da Silva Lopes; Vivianne de Castilho Moreira; Carlos Alberto Ribeiro de Moura; Marco Antonio de Avila Zingano

• Advisor: Luiz Henrique Lopes dos Santos

Abstract

The role of reason (logos) among the actions (praxis) still stands as a great question of philosophy. This work intends to explore it from G. W. Leibniz philosophical point of view. The starting line is the rational paradigm itself, god. Outlining an overview of the key elements involved in the divine choice of the best of worlds that serve to show how we can understand the human acts. Leibniz tends to develop his philosophy with the support of other thinkers, among them, Aristotle has a special place. Therefore we try to show partially how Leibniz takes advantage of Aristotelian theses when the modern philosopher reflects about human acts. To do this, regarding to Aristotle, a general framework about some of the main concepts of his theory of action is shown, such as the notions of voluntary, deliberation, deliberative choice, among others that allows sketching his notion of practical reason. Thereafter we develop the idea of human action from its basis according to Leibniz thought. From this perspective, to get to the knowledge of the act named as rational, we start with the action of the substances and shows up gradually as the reason becomes part of the faculties of a certain group of beings, which use it when they move. Through all these steps, we attempt to reach the details of Leibnizian thought when he comes to human movement and if he would be entitled to invoke the Aristotelian thought to reflect on rational action. (AU)