ABSTRACT
The human mind for Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz is an immaterial substance which is causally independent of its body and indeed of all bodies. During Leibniz’s lifetime, the doctrine of innate ideas and knowledge came under siege not only from the empiricist Locke but also from Leibniz’s fellow-rationalist, Nicolas Malebranche. In the Discourse on Metaphysics, Leibniz reminds the reader of the metaphysical doctrines of the pre-established harmony which he claims to have demonstrated: the human mind, in common with all other substances, is a causally self-sufficient entity. Leibniz insists that his doctrine of pre-established harmony solves the problem, but it is difficult to evaluate this claim, for the problem of mind–body union, as found in Descartes, hardly arises in Leibniz’s philosophy. Leibniz’s doctrine of unconscious perceptions has rightly been seen as a bold and brilliant stroke of innovation in psychology, but it is also in the service of major metaphysical doctrines.
