Distribution AgreementDistribution Agreement • September 17th, 2020
Contract Type FiledSeptember 17th, 2020In the final month of 1676, Leibniz arrives in Hannover to take an appointment under Duke Johann Friedrich. Having acclimated himself to the vibrant intellectual scene in Paris (to say nothing of London and the Netherlands, where Leibniz made brief stops before his Hannover arrival), Leibniz could only view Hannover as something of an intellectual disappointment. He regards his middling position as court librarian as professionally disappointing as well. But for all this, Leibniz’s philosophical production in Hannover is anything but disappointing. Leibniz writes prolifically throughout the 1680s, publishing some of his work—including his first published critiques of Descartes1—in the newly founded Acta Eruditorum. His investigations find systematic exposition in 1686, when Leibniz writes the “short discourse on metaphysics”2 widely considered by posterity to be his first mature philosophical work.