Conversation of Philarète and Ariste, Following a Conversation of Ariste and Theodore

Abstract

It is significant that at the same time at which he was defining his thought in Scholastic forms in the correspondence with Des Bosses, Leibniz had not abandoned the more popular exposition of his views in relation to Cartesian thought. This dialogue is the most successful of several criticisms of Malebranche; in form it is a continuation of that thinker’s Entretiens sur la métaphysique et sur la religion, published in 1688.¹In this work Malebranche himself appears as Theodore, who had expounded his opinions to Ariste; Leibniz’s views are presented by Philarète.

The exact date of the dialogue is not known, though it seems to have been written shortly after the Theodicy. In 1715 Leibniz sent it to Remond (see the letter of July 29, 1715 [G., III, 645]) as “a little dialogue on some opinions of the Reverend Father Malebranche”. Des Maizeau, who received it from Remond, published it in 1720 with the title Examen des Principes du R. P. Malebranche; Leibniz’s own manuscript bears the title translated above.