ABSTRACT
In company with the leading moral philosophers of the period, G. W. Leibniz grounds his ethical theory in moral psychology, that is, in a set of theses concerning the nature of human choice and motivation. The age of Leibniz was not only a period of political turmoil; it was also a period that witnessed an explosion of new ideas about the fundamental questions of politics. Human beings are not only all members of the City of God; they are, of course, also members of political communities which, in Leibniz’s time, were typically ruled by monarchs or princes. Leibniz’s obsession with criticizing Hobbes can also be seen as an expression of his adherence to Plato. Leibniz then puts a distinctively Christian interpretation on justice so construed by equating it with a form of love or charity. Leibniz is unusual amongst political philosophers of the period in that he cannot be classified straightforwardly in either camp.
