Gottfried Leibniz's theory of pre-established harmony is a philosophical theory about causation under which every "substance"
only affects itself, but all the substances (both bodies and minds) in the world nevertheless seem to causally interact with each
other because they have been programmed by God in advance to "harmonize" with
each other. Leibniz's term for these substances was "windowless monads".
An example:
- An apple falls on Alice's head, apparently causing the experience of pain in her mind. In fact, the apple does not cause the
pain - the pain is caused by some previous state of Alice's mind. If Alice then seems to shake her hand in anger, it is not
actually her mind that causes this, but some previous state of her hand.
Leibniz's theory is best known as a solution to the mind-body problem of how mind
can interact with the body. However, Leibniz also rejected the idea of physical bodies affecting each other, and explained
all physical causation in this way.
Under pre-established harmony, the preprogramming of each mind must be extremely complex, since only it itself causes its own
thoughts or movements, for as long as it exists. In order to appear to interact, each substance's "program" must contain a
description of either the entire universe, or of how the object is to behave at all times, during all "interactions" which will
appear to occur.
Therefore, the use of Occam's Razor is one possible response to the concept of
pre-established harmony: it is simpler for there to actually be a universe of interacting objects than a universe of
non-interacting objects that must each behave as if they were interacting with an entire external universe.
It can also be noted that if a mind behaves as a windowless monad, there is no need for any other object to exist in order to
create that mind's sense perceptions, leading to a solipsistic universe consisting only of
that mind. Leibniz seems to admit this in his Discourse on Metaphysics section
14. However, he claims that his Principle of Harmony, according to which God creates the best and most harmonious world possible, dictates that the perceptions (internal states) of each monad "expresses" the world in its
entirety, and the world expressed by the monad actually exists. Although Leibniz says that each monad is "windowless," he also
claims that it functions as a "mirror" of the entire created universe.
See also
External link
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