P. Basile 
Leibniz, Whitehead and the Metaphysics of Causation 

Introduces the reader to Whitehead’s complex and often misunderstood metaphysics by showing that it deals with questions about the nature of causation originally raised by the philosophy of Leibniz. Whitehead’s philosophy is an attempt at rehabilitating Leibniz’s theory of monads by recasting it in terms of novel ontological categories

Table of Content

Preface and Acknowledgements Introduction: From Leibniz to Whitehead The Conception of Substance: Whitehead, Russell, and Leibniz The Relevance of Leibniz: Ward’s Theory of Monads The Phenomenology of Causation: Whitehead and Hume The Metaphysics of Causation: Whitehead, Hume, and James The Reality of Forms: Whitehead’s Theistic Argument The Final View: the Dipolar Conception of God Epilogue: Is a Leibnizian Metaphysics Still Possible Today? Notes Bibliography Index

About the author

PIERFRANCESCO BASILE teaches Philosophy at the University of Bern, Switzerland. His publications include
Experience and Relations: An Examination of F. H. Bradley’s Conception of Reality (1999) and several articles and edited books on the origin of analytic philosophy, British idealism and process philosophy.