This work presents Leibniz's view of infinity and the central role it plays in his theory of living beings. Nachtomy argues that Leibniz employs three degrees of infinity: absolute infinity, which applies to God; maximum or infinite in kind, which applies to created, living beings; and mathematical infinity.

• Acknowledgments


• Abbreviations


• Introduction: What Does Infinity Have to do with Life?


• Chapter 1: Introducing the Main Characters: A Conceptual Outline of Leibniz's Approach to Infinity


• Chapter 2: Leibniz in Paris: Between Infinite Number and Infinite Being


• Chapter 3: Leibniz Reads Spinoza: Different Senses and Different Degrees of Infinity


• Chapter 4: Infinity and Unity: Mathematics and Metaphysics


• Chapter 5: Infinity and Life: A Sketch of Leibniz's Development


• Chapter 6: Animate and Inanimate Things, Natural and Artificial Machines


• Chapter 7: Living Mirrors and Mites: Leibniz and Pascal


• Chapter 8: Created Beings as Infinite and Limited


• Chapter 9: Monads at the Bottom, Monads at the Top, Monads All Over


• Chapter 10: Life, Force, and Infinity


• Conclusion: The Re-enchantment of Nature


• Bibliography

Ohad Nachtomy is Professor of Philosophy at Bar-Ilan University and a visiting member of the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton University. His recent books are The Life Sciences in Early Modern Philosophy (OUP 2014) and Machines of Nature and Corporeal Substances in Leibniz (2010), both coedited with Justin E. H. Smith; and Possibility, Agency, and Individuality in Leibniz's Metaphysics (2007).