Leibniz Whitehead And The Metaphysics Of Causation

Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) was the greatest speculative metaphysician of the twentieth century and a teacher to contemporary philosophers Russell and Quine. This study introduces the reader to his complex and often misunderstood metaphysics by showing that it deals with questions about the nature of causation originally raised by the philosophy of Leibniz.

Whitehead's philosophy is interpreted as an attempt at rehabilitating Leibniz's theory of monads by recasting it in terms of novel ontological categories. The book first explains why Whitehead could look at Leibniz as a living philosophical option and then goes on to critically examine his theories of monadic interaction and of divine agency.

Whitehead's relevance to contemporary thought becomes clear as soon as we realize that the questions he was concerned with -- including the fundamental one as to the very nature and purpose of philosophy -- are still at the centre of contemporary debates.