ABSTRACT
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz is well-known for his monadological metaphysics, his doctrine of pre-established harmony, and his theodicy in philosophical theology. Leibniz’s thinking on the mind takes place against the backdrop of broader ancient and medieval philosophical traditions as well as early modern debates on the mind. For Leibniz, sense perception is not a matter of receiving sensible species nor is intellection a matter of abstracting intelligible from sensible species. Leibniz uses the Latin term ‘perceptio’ and the French equivalent ‘perception’ generically in order to refer to all modifications of all monads. For Leibniz, every monadic modification represents a feature of the monad’s body. This doctrine of bodily representation also holds true for rational monads. It requires that thoughts, even abstract metaphysical or mathematical thoughts, must represent features of the monad’s body.
