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Community Corner

Michael Della Rocca - "Leibniz, Substance, and the Explanatory Demand"

The notion of a substance or a thing is central to philosophy, and metaphysicians have long recognized a need to give an account of what it is to be a substance. Della Rocca will explore the attempts by Aristotle, Descartes, and -- in most detail -- Leibniz to meet this explanatory demand, and will show how these attempts are all unsuccessful. He then will argue that such failure is inevitable as long as philosophers embrace a seemingly harmless assumption common to the accounts of Aristotle, Descartes, and Leibniz. This discussion will close by examining the exciting and unsettling implications of giving up this natural assumption.

Location on campus: Heimbold Visual Arts Center (Room 208)

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