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Cartesian scientific method of his time. What remains to be written is a study of late-seven-
teenth-century Cartesian science that is as excellent and comprehensive as Schmaltzs study
of the Cartesian metaphysics of the time. Here are some problems Descartes set up that are
of particular concern to the philosophers of the time. If God can do anything, even make
contradictions true, then why could he not make you think you exist even when you do
not? How could you think of something that does not exist? Because your thoughts have a
temporal dimension, and time depends on motion, and motion pertains only to material
bodies, how could you think if there were no material world of moving bodies out there
causing your thoughts? And along these lines, how could an idea intend a non-existent
object? That is, doesnt the mere fact that you have thoughts in temporal sequence prove
that the external world exists? What can disembodied minds think of, if anything? Since
our ideas as modifications of a finite mind are finite and particular, how can we have ideas
of general and infinite things (the old likeness problem!)?
Schmaltz has such command of his material, and presents it in such dense detail and depth,
that it would be absurd of me to try to summarize his work in this brief review. Instead, I simply
want to say that this is a major work of scholarship that will stand for a long, long time. The
book is a tough read, but a rewarding one for anyone willing to follow Tad Schmaltz (slowly,
pay attention!) into the labyrinth of late-seventeenth-century Cartesian metaphysics.
RI C HA R D A. WAT S ON
Washington University
Jean-Baptiste Rauzy. La Doctrine leibnizienne de la vrit. Aspects logiques et ontologiques. Paris:
Vrin, 2001. Pp. vii + 353. Paper, FF 170,55.
This important book provides a reappraisal of Leibnizs philosophy of logic and epistemol-
ogy based on a close scrutiny of the recently edited manuscripts in the Akademie-Ausgabe,
and a reconstitution of Leibnizs sequential investigations. The author displays an excep-
tional knowledge of the Leibnizian corpus, the ancient and medieval sources for the vari-
ous doctrines he analyzes, and the contemporary issues underpinning Leibnizs investiga-
tions. He aims at rectifying misconceptions that stemmed originally in Couturats La Logique
de Leibniz (1901) and have since affected several studies. Three methodological statements set
the ground for Rauzys analysis: (1) Leibnizs notion of truth concerns in unified fashion
all the elements of discourse: terms, concepts, and propositions. (2) Leibniz did not re-
strict his doctrine of truth to consistency relations, but yielded a complex, well-articulated
conception of truth as correspondence, as evidenced in New Essays on Human Understand-
ing, IV, v, sect. 11; yet, at the same time, his doctrine focused on conceptual relations which
specify an order of reasons deserving to be analyzed for their own sake: Dans la doctrine
leibnizienne de la vrit, ladaequatio rei constitue encore le cadre gnral en dehors duquel
le prdicat de vrit na pas de sens. Mais les concepts et les liaisons conceptuelles donnent
dsormais la raison pour laquelle telle phrase particulire est vraie . . . (47). And (3) one
should resist attributing to Leibniz a purely syntactic conception of truth since the seman-
tic dimension of his logical analyses deserves to be reconstituted and due consideration
should be given to the evolution of his thoughts on central philosophical issues, which
occasioned significant variations in the elements and formulas of his calculus rationis.
It is merely possible to render the rich contents of the book by mentioning some of its
more striking features. In Chapter 1, the inesse principle (Praedicatum inest subjecto) is shown
to serve grammatical, logical, and conceptual functions. The doctrine of expression is finely
analyzed: expression is shown to provide the major translation tool between characters
and thoughts and to condition the combinatorial treatment of rational discourse. In Chap-
ter 2, the distinction between concept and object is shown to involve some relativity, even
if the understanding of complete notions is supposed to entail real knowledge of the corre-
sponding realities. Leibniz is thus justified to represent the manifold of ontological rela-
tions, including the requisites of actual existence, in a tentatively unified logical way: Que
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417 B OOK R E V I E WS
lexistence soit une proprit relationnelle complexe, conue tantt par la relation de
compatibilit, tantt par une relation lesprit en gnralet ventuellement [. . .] par un
mixte des deuxninterdit nullement de maintenir que la vrit de toutes les propositions
dpend de relations conceptuelles (1245). In Chapter 3, the project of a calculus based
on concepts is shown to entail a special relation, hardly dealt with in the literature, be-
tween intension and extension (cf. for instance New Essays, IV, xvii, sect. 8). Rauzy reas-
sesses in particular Leibnizs critical revision of nominalism and of inductive procedures as
these require universal propositions to ground rational presumptions. The extensional
notion of class is considered an abstraction: a class presupposes therefore the extension of
a concept in order to become an object of thought. The principle of conceptual inherence
requires to be interpreted as stating the equipollence between the requisites of subject and
predicate; if such an equipollence may be reached a priori in exceptional cases, most of
the time it will require various kinds of additions and derivations to yield sufficient congru-
ence between the related terms. Chapter 4 is devoted to substitutions, more precisely to
the theory of definition and the context, at once logical and discursive, from which a po-
tential Leibnizian theory of communication might be derived. Rauzy notes that substitu-
tive equivalences are even implied in the correlation of empirical statements under archi-
tectonic principles. Chapter 5 analyzes Leibnizs ontology in reference to potential models
for the substance-predicate relation. In this regard, the passage on the compatibility of
physical analyses with the theory of predication (25560) is particularly enlightening, as
well as the section on the connection between accidents and relations, wherein Rauzy
completes Massimo Mugnais interpretation of the latter (2908). The book ends with
considerations on Leibnizs views concerning notional haecceitas. This conceptual device,
in connection with the principle of identity of indiscernibles, warrants maintaining at once
the basic individuality of realities and the strict possibility of providing conceptual expres-
sions for these entities.
Readers who already own a good knowledge of the history of logic and are familiar with
the present state of scholarship on Leibnizs epistemology will draw considerable benefit
from this clearly written, though rather erudite and technical book.
FR A N OI S DUC HE S NE A U
Universit de Montral
Heidi M. Ravven and Lenn E. Goodman, editors. Jewish Themes in Spinozas Philosophy. Al-
bany: The State University of New York Press, 2002. Pp. ix + 290. Cloth, $78.50. Paper,
$26.95.
The current anthology presents an important contribution to the study of Spinozas rela-
tion to Jewish philosophy as well as to contemporary scholarship of Spinozas metaphysics
and political theory.
In the opening essay, Lenn Goodman takes upon himself the ambitious task of evaluat-
ing Spinozas positions as to several central disputes throughout the history of philosophy.
In this rich and extensive essay Goodman argues that Spinozas radical rationalism makes
him pursue syntheses between traditionally opposed poles. Lee Rices article, Love of God
in Spinoza, carefully analyzes Spinozas concept of love and suggests the existence of three
kinds of love parallel to the three kinds of knowledge. Warren Montag addresses the unre-
solved issue of Spinozas relation to the Kabbalah. Montag sides with Deleuze against the
association of Spinozism with the Neo-Platonic theory of emanation, arguing that unlike
the Neo-Platonists and Kabbalists, Spinozas view of God rules out any hierarchy, and does
not assume a descent from primal simplicity into complexity. Edwin Curley contributes a
beautiful reading of the story of Job and of Maimonides interpretation of the story. Curley
follows Maimonides discussion of the various positions regarding the question of divine
providence and his attempt to identify the speeches of the characters of the book of Job
with each of these positions. Following a sensitive consideration of various attempts to
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