Leibniz’s transcendental aesthetic

Abstract

This essay I argue that for Leibniz, bodies, are in an important sense not geometrical. Instead, I will argue, geometrical extension, which Leibniz characterizes as “ideal” and radically distinct from concrete reality, is something external to the concrete world of bodies which we apply to them. As part of the argument I will explore the sense in which continuous extension is ideal for Leibniz, and why, for him, it is metaphysically impossible that real bodies could instantiate continuous extension.