De loco: Leibniz’s Theory of Space

This chapter traces the development of Leibniz’s theory of space, from his absolutist conception in the early 1670s, to his mature relational theory. It is argued that the relations in question are the relations of situation among bodies, and that place is an equivalence class of relations of situation, space being a system of places, and thus an order of possible situations—not a system of relations among actual bodies. It charts Leibniz’s …