Affiliation:
1. University of Toronto Department of Philosophy, Jackman Humanities Building 170 St. George Street, Toronto, ON, M5R 2M8 Toronto Canada
Abstract
Abstract
I examine several alleged grounds of the principle of sufficient reason in Leibniz’s philosophy. These include the nature of a requisite and a sufficient condition, the nature of truth, and the nature of harmony. I argue that Leibniz does not ground the PSR in any of these ways. Instead, he is committed to a value-based grounds of the PSR: God creates the best possible world, and the fact that the PSR obtains in this world contributes to it being the best. I conclude by considering some objections to this way of grounding the PSR.