This volume gathers together for the first time the philosophical journal articles that appeared during Leibniz's lifetime under his name or which would have been easily attributed to him due to other identifying marks. Its primary aim is to convey a sense of the way in which Leibniz's philosophical views would have been available to the reading public of the time. The distinction between the papers that Leibniz published that are philosophical and those that are concerned with what was then called 'natural philosophy' is somewhat arbitrary. However, the present volume is a companion to Leibniz: Journal Articles on Natural Philosophy (OUP, 2023), and all the articles that are plausible candidates for the label 'philosophical' can be found in one or the other. Among the thirty articles included here are seminal pieces such as 'Meditations on Knowledge, Truth, and Ideas', 'On the Emendation of First Philosophy', 'On Nature Itself', and the 'New System' and its accompanying 'explanations', along with Leibniz's responses to criticisms of the 'New System' by Pierre Bayle, René-Joseph de Tournemine, and François Lamy. Readers will also encounter less familiar pieces from the early 1690s in which Leibniz engages with Simon Foucher and offers a series of critical discussions of Descartes and Cartesian philosophy. Finally, the collection contains three extended reviews of works by other philosophers: Wolf Heinrich von Lüttichau' Pansophia, Samuel Pufendorf's On The Duty of Man and Citizen, and the Earl of Shaftesbury's Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times. In Three Volumes.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1: Meditations on Knowledge, Truth, and Ideas by G. G. L [November 1684] 2: Extract from a Letter from Mr. L. Concerning a General Principle of Use in the Explanation of the Laws of Nature by Consideration of Divine Wisdom; To Serve as a Response to the Reply by the Rev. Fr. M. [July 1687] 3: G. G. L. On Combinatorial Art. Frankfurt: H. C. Crökerum, 1690 in Quarto, pp.11 [February 1691] 4: Extract From a Letter From Mr. Leibniz on the Question of Whether the Essence of Body Consists in Extension [June 1691] 5: Extract from a letter by Mr. Leibniz to Mr. Foucher, Canon of Dijon, on Some Axioms of Philosophy [June 1692] 6: Extract From a Letter From Mr. Leibniz in Support of His Contribution to the Journal des Sçavans for 18 June 1691 [January 1693] 7: Extract From a Letter From Mr. Leibniz to the Abbé Nicaise on Mr. Descartes Philosophy [April 1693] 8: Mr. Leibniz s Reply to the Extract from the Letter by Mr. Foucher, Canon of Dijon, Which Appeared in the Journal of 16 March 1693 [August 1693] 9: Some Notes by G. G. L. On the Life and Doctrine of Descartes [June 1693] 10: On the Emendation of First Philosophy, and on the Notion of Substance [March 1694] 11: New System of the Nature of Substances and their Communication, and of the Union which Exists Between the Soul and the Body. By Mr. D. L. [July 1695] 12: Extracts From Different Letters [February 1696] 13: Explanation of the New System of the Communication Between Substances, in Reply to What Was Said of It in the Journal for 12 September 1695 [April 1696] 14: Pansophia oder Grund aller Weisheit in Erkäntnüss Gottes nach seinen Wesen vermittelst der Vernunffts-Kräffte gesuchet von W.H.V.L. That Is to Say Pansophia, or the Foundation of All Wisdom, Consisting in the Knowledge of God, Through His Essence; And in the Knowledge of Man, Through His Nature: All Investigated by the Light of Reason. By Mr. de Lüttichau. (Berlin, Michel Rudiger, in octavo, 1696) [September/October 1696] 15: Extract From a Letter From Mr. Leibniz About His Philosophical Hypothesis, and About an Interesting Problem for Mathematicians Set by One of his Friends; With a Comment on Some Points Debated in Previous Journals by the Author of the Principles of Physics and That of the Objections to Those principles. [November 1696] 16: Reply to the Reflections Appearing in the 23rd Volume of This Year s Journal des Sçavans, Concerning the Consequences of Some Points in Descartes philosophy [August 1697] 17: Continuation of the Reply to the Reflections on the Consequences of Some Points in Descartes Philosophy [August 1967] 18: A Letter From Mr. Leibniz to the Editor, Containing a Clarification of the Difficulties Which Mr. Bayle Found With the New System of the Union of the Soul and Body [July 1698] 19: G. G. L. On Nature Itself, That is, the Inherent Force and Actions of Created Things, Toward Confirming and Illustrating Their Dynamics [September 1698] 20: Extract From a Letter of Mr. Leibniz on What There is in the Mémoires of January and February Touching On the Generation of Ice and the Cartesian Demonstration of the Existence of God by the Benedictine Rev. Fr. Lamy [September-October 1701] 21: Extract From a Letter From Mr. Leibniz to Mr. Varignon, Containing a Clarification of What Was Said of Him in the Mémoires de Trévoux for Last November and December [March 1702] 22: Considerations Concerning Vital Principles and Plastic Natures, by the Originator of the System of Pre-Established Harmony [May 1705] 23: Remark by Mr. Leibniz on an Article in the Mémoires de Trévoux From the Month of March 1704 [March 1708] 24: Reply to the Objections That the Author of the Book The Knowledge of the Self made Against the System of Pre-established Harmony [June 1709] 25: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz s Letter Concerning the Principles of Pufendorf s Work On The Duty of Man and Citizen [1711] 26: Mr Leibniz s Remarks on the Sixth Philosophical Letter Published at Trévoux, in 1703 [July 1712] 27: A Critical Eulogy on the Works of Lord Shaftesbury, by Mr. Leibniz. Submitted by Mr. Coste [1715] 28: Clarification of an Item in the Last journal. Pages 128 and 129 [1715] 29: Letter from Mr. Leibniz to Mr. Des Maizeaux, Containing Some Clarifications of the Preceding Explanation, and of Other Parts of the System of Pre-established Harmony, Etc. Hanover, 8 July 1711 [1716] 30: Mr Leibniz's Reply to the Comments Contained in the Second Edition of M. Bayle's Critical Dictionary, in the Article Rorarius , Concerning the System of Pre-established Harmony [1716]