Preestablished Harmony

Preestablished Harmony 

a concept introduced into philosophy by G. von Leibniz in 1695 to account for the universal interaction and harmony in the world. According to this doctrine, further developed by Leibniz in 1696, the substantive elements in the world, the monads, being purely spiritual substances, cannot interact with one another physically. However, the development of each stands in a harmonious relationship preestablished by god with the development of all other monads and with the world as a whole. As a result of this essential harmony, there also arises a harmony among phenomena (physical determinism) and a harmony between substance and phenomenon (concord between final and efficient causes and between body and soul).

The theory of preestablished harmony was directed against Malebranche’s occasionalism and Cartesian dualism; within a deistic framework, it upheld the concept of the immanent harmony of natural processes.

REFERENCES

Eisler, R. Kritische Untersuchung des Begriffes der Weltharmonie…. Berlin, 1895.
Belaval, Y. Ł’Idee d’harmonie chez Leibniz. In “Studium generale,” 1966, vol. XIX, fasc. 9.

Y. Y. MAIOROV