Editing Rationalism (section)

====Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716)====
{{Main|Gottfried Leibniz}}
Leibniz was the last major figure of seventeenth-century rationalism who contributed heavily to other fields such as [[metaphysics]], [[epistemology]], [[logic]], [[mathematics]], [[physics]], [[jurisprudence]], and the [[philosophy of religion]]; he is also considered to be one of the last "universal geniuses".<ref name="Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz">Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/leibniz/ Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805133308/http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/leibniz/ |date=2020-08-05 }}.</ref> He did not develop his system, however, independently of these advances. Leibniz rejected Cartesian dualism and denied the existence of a material world. In Leibniz's view there are infinitely many simple substances, which he called "[[Monadology|monads]]" (which he derived directly from [[Proclus]]).

Leibniz developed his theory of monads in response to both Descartes and [[Spinoza]], because the rejection of their visions forced him to arrive at his own solution. Monads are the fundamental unit of reality, according to Leibniz, constituting both inanimate and animate objects. These units of reality represent the universe, though they are not subject to the laws of causality or space (which he called "[[well-founded phenomenon|well-founded phenomena]]"). Leibniz, therefore, introduced his principle of [[pre-established harmony]] to account for apparent causality in the world.