G.W. Leibniz: Discourse on Metaphysics and Related Writings (Classics of Philosophy and Scie... Book

Well, I made it through this one. I can't say I enjoyed it or that I feel enlightened. In fact, I might be measurably stupider than before I began reading it. That's no fault of Mr. Leibniz. I just can't anymore with the metaphysics, I think. Is the soul a material substance or immaterial? Is it part of the body or separate from the body? Does God will the law of nature of follow the law of nature? Is man born with all knowledge within him waiting to be illuminated or is he born a blank slate waiting for experience to leave its mark upon him? I dunno, ya know? And if there is one thing that I've learned in the last three years of reading the great metaphysical philosophers whinge on about all of these topics, it is that I don't give a good goddamn. Seriously.

These concepts are so abstract and academic that my mind grabs onto them in the manner of a child attempting to clutch a water weenie. His chubby hands close around the squishy tube but it slips right out of them just when he thinks he has it. Eventually he may get to the point where he learns to just trap a small bit of it in a pincers hold but this is unsatisfying in every way and doesn't allow for any meaningful interaction with the toy. He might learn to grip it so hard in the middle that it bulges out both sides of his fist resembling nothing that it once did and, again, making it impossible to play with or enjoy or even observe. Not only this, metaphysical philosophy always arouses in me the same conclusion that playing with water weenies aroused in me as a child: This is a stupid waste of time. I'm going to go read something interesting and fun.

That being said, I'm glad that there are people who do give a damn because these are important questions and we need to continue asking them. And even people who are on the spectrum of kind-of-don't-care to give-zero-f#@%$ should probably at least familiarize themselves with the debates. Which is all I'm really trying to do here. In a perfect world I'd both care and understand but, unlike Leibniz, I don't believe in perfect worlds.