1 66 INTRODUCTION 



presuppositions are in complete opposition to one another, 

 we may have two contrary philosophical systems, both 

 apparently flowing from the same first principle. 



Wolff, then, rejects the law of continuity and returns 

 to a position which has some analogy with that of 

 Descartes. Ostensibly his philosophy is a Monad ology ; 

 really it is a kind of combination of Monadology with 

 Atomism \ The Cartesian dualism is restored in the form 

 of a distinction between spiritual and physical Monads. 

 The spiritual Monads alone, in Wolff's opinion, deserve 

 the name of Monads. The others are ' elements of things,' 

 atomi naturae. These physical atoms or unconscious 

 Monads are no longer regarded as living mirrors, repre- 

 senting or perceiving the whole universe. They are still 

 automata, but they are no longer souls. They have 

 nothing in common with the spiritual Monads except the 

 characteristics of unity, simplicity, and activity. Thus 

 the whole of Leibniz's hypotheses regarding unconscious 

 thinking, petites perceptions, &c., are thrown aside, and we 

 have, in place of Descartes's two substances (thought and 

 extension \ two sets of independent particular substances, 

 the phenomena of the one set being thoughts and of the 

 other set motions. As an inevitable consequence of this, 

 the system of pre-established harmony, as Leibniz con- 

 ceived it, disappears also. Wolff retains the name, but 

 he regards the harmony not as a hypothesis by which to 

 explain the relations of each independent particular sub- 

 stance to eveiy other, but merely as an explanation of the 

 connexion between soul and body, between spiritual atoms 

 or Monads and corporeal atoms. According to Leibniz 

 there could be no real interaction between Monads. But 

 Wolff's * atoms of nature,' being 1 purely physical, do 

 really influence one another. He sees no difficulty in 



1 Cf. Schelling, SammtUche Werkffj vol. vi. p. 116 : 'As often 

 happens, the immediate successorsfof Leibniz set aside the really 

 speculative part of his doctrine, rthe Monadology. For example 

 the most celebrated of them, Wolff, admits it into his system only 

 in the guise of a hypothesis.' 



