Principle of sufficient reason:
Principle that there must be a sufficient reason – causal or otherwise – for why whatever exists or occurs does so, and does so in the place, time and manner that it does.
The principle goes back to at least the early 5th century BC – being used by Parmenides (see Eleaticism) in his Fragment 8, lines 9-10 – but it is most famously associated with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716), who used it to exclude all arbitrariness, and to account for ‘truths of fact’ (while the law of contradiction accounted for ‘truths of reason’).
He also derived the identity of indiscernibles from it.
Also see: principle of perfection, causal principle
Source:
H G Alexander, ed., The Leibniz-Clark Correspondence (1956)
Table of Contents
- 1 Videos
- 2 Related Products
- 2.1 On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason (Open Court Library of Philosophy)
- 2.2 The Principle of Sufficient Reason: A Reassessment (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy)
- 2.3 Principle of Sufficient Reason
- 2.4 Causation and the Principle of Sufficient Reason (The God Series Book 21)
- 2.5 On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason
- 2.6 Religious Studies: An International Journal for the Philosophy of Religion, vol. 32, no. 1 (March 1996) (Morality of Theodicies; Principle of Sufficient Reason; Leibniz & God's Existence)
- 2.7 Schopenhauer: On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason and Other Writings (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Schopenhauer)
- 2.8 The Principle of Sufficient Reason
- 2.9 On the fourfold root of the principle of sufficient reason and On the will in nature; Two essays
- 2.10 Schopenhauer: On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason and Other Writings (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Schopenhauer)
- perfection principle
- Leibniz’s law
- continuity law or principle
- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
- indiscernibility of identicals
Videos
On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason (Open Court Library of Philosophy)
- Used Book in Good Condition
- Arthur Schopenhauer (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 260 Pages - 01/22/1999 (Publication Date) - Open Court (Publisher)
The Principle of Sufficient Reason: A Reassessment (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy)
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Pruss, Alexander R. (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 352 Pages - 03/20/2006 (Publication Date) - Cambridge University Press (Publisher)
Causation and the Principle of Sufficient Reason (The God Series Book 21)
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Hockney, Mike (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 298 Pages - 11/03/2014 (Publication Date) - Hyperreality Books (Publisher)
On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason
- Audible Audiobook
- Arthur Schopenhauer (Author) - Leighton Pugh (Narrator)
- English (Publication Language)
- 11/02/2018 (Publication Date) - Ukemi Audiobooks (Publisher)
Schopenhauer: On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason and Other Writings (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Schopenhauer)
- Schopenhauer, Arthur (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 558 Pages - 10/01/2015 (Publication Date) - Cambridge University Press (Publisher)
On the fourfold root of the principle of sufficient reason and On the will in nature; Two essays
- Schopenhauer, Arthur (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 98 Pages - 08/09/2017 (Publication Date) - CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (Publisher)
Schopenhauer: On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason and Other Writings (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Schopenhauer)
- Used Book in Good Condition
- Hardcover Book
- Schopenhauer, Arthur (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 558 Pages - 11/12/2012 (Publication Date) - Cambridge University Press (Publisher)
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