imascholar

Best possible world and individual concept. When god picks you he creates the best possible world. In ur concept involved not only truth about you but your relation to everything in the universe in past/present/future. Logical connection b/w god creating best possible world and creating you.

Pre-Established Harmony? L's theory of causation. God created particular possible you, all the truths in your concept are contained in you. SO, everything contains its entire history already. Experience of time, its difference in expression of universe of each created individual at every moment of timeline that is contained in the each individual concept. My giving a lecture is my particular way of expressing the universe. Its more clearly expressed that I give lecture right now than that I spend all Sunday's night working on a paper, at this point in time that part of my timeline is not clearly expressed. But its equally true of me that I lecture you on Leibniz and also that something going on somewhere, it is equally contained in my individual concept.

Notion of expression is !!! We express more clearly those thing that happen right now and here than somewhere in other time.

Clock-Store. You walk in and all clocks strike 3pm. 3 ways u can explain that fact. Why they strike at same time?
Ok, obviously it must be the case that clocks cause each other to strike - causal powers theory of causation (Malebranche hates this view
Occasionalism - Ok, there is store keeper, they strike at same time not because they have causal powers, but because the store keeper makes 'em all strike at the same time. Clocks are occasions, and keeper willed the general law for them all to strike at same time
Pre-Established Harmony (middle view). Each clock contains causal power in a sense that each clock runs on its own but clocks don't affect each other (no outside powers in clocks). So why strike at same time? Well, it happens b/c that shop keeper set 'em in such a way that when they run on their own, they strike at same time.

Universe as a clock shop, and people are clocks that run on their own and all made by a clock-maker, he is so good that he can make things happen to all things at same time by setting clocks up at the very beginning, not intervening all the time. God set 'em up so that they fit pattern of best possible world.

When u express particular view about you, other individuals around also express truth about them, less or more clearly. So individuals don't directly operate on each other, but what we see that each guy expresses his own individual concept, so that they create a pattern of light, as causation in an ordinary sense. One light blinks after another, but they do not affect each other. Lights run a predetermined program that create patters - appearance of motion/causation.

Individuals have no real contact with each other. I have no direct experience of you, I have impressions that I assume are you. Existence of others is the best explanation of the pattern that we observe, experience.

L attack on thesis that we see all things in God (Malebranche), Ontologism, or Vision in God. Which is, we have infinite ideas that could come from our minds (how finite can contain the infinite) or that we perceive an object separate from us, ie God. For M its absurd to think that we can have infinite ideas, cause we r finite. Idea as immediate object of perception, M agrees that we can have ideas of infinite. L is sympathetic to M view. But he claims that its absurd to think that our ideas are someone else's. So we either perceive something infinite or how finite substance can include the infinite. L answer is that each substance in finite only in one particular way, I include in my concept all truths of god and nature, in myself I'm infinite. All finite things include truths about everything including infinite being. In ur concept can be contained infinite truths. L says, each individual is the image of god, but we can't see from all perspectives like god, but only from one perspective. God sees from every perspective but he sees every possible perspective in every possible world. We are more limited in our expression and perspective, but otherwise we r infinite. We see ideas in ourselves, not in god, we just don't see infinite clearly.