Leibniz' Universal Jurisprudence

Book excerpt: For the first time Leibniz' political, moral, and legal thought are extensively discussed here in English. The text includes fragments of his work that have never before been translated. Riley shows that a justice based on both wisdom and love, "wise charity", has at least as much claim to be taken seriously as the familiar contractarian ideas of Hobbes and Locke. For Leibniz, nothing is more important than benevolence toward others, which he famously equates with justice and which he insists is morally crucial. Because Leibniz was the greatest Platonist of early modernity, Riley argues, his version of Platonic idealism serves as the bridge from Plato himself to the greatest modern "critical" idealist, Kant. With Leibniz' Universal Jurisprudence we now have a fuller picture of one of the greatest general thinkers of the seventeenth century.