ABSTRACT
Traditionally, Leibniz has not been regarded as a major moral philosopher; indeed, he has not even been regarded as a philosopher who was greatly occupied with ethical questions. Yet it is a striking fact that the famous synoptic expositions of his philosophy, such as the Monadology and the Principles of Nature and Grace, all culminate in ethics. Even more strikingly such works tend to follow the same plan, at least in broad outline, as the greatest masterpiece of moral philosophy in the period, namely Spinoza’s Ethics; that is, they begin with metaphysical considerations concerning the nature of substance, and they end with a vision of human happiness, even blessedness.
