Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Leibniz: Philosophy in an Hour cover art

Leibniz: Philosophy in an Hour

By: Paul Strathern
Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £5.99

Buy Now for £5.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Foucault (2nd Edition) cover art
Legendary Philosophers: The Life and Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche cover art
10 Books Every Conservative Must Read cover art
Nature's God cover art
Ancient Egypt: History in an Hour cover art
Legends of The Enlightenment cover art
Nietzsche cover art
Being and Time cover art
The Ethics of Aristotle cover art
Sri Aurobindo & India's Rebirth cover art
Philosophical Investigations cover art
Critique of Pure Reason cover art
No Excuses: Existentialism and the Meaning of Life cover art
On the Genealogy of Morals cover art
Explaining Postmodernism (Expanded Edition) cover art
The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche cover art

Summary

Philosophy for busy people. Read a succinct account of the philosophy of Leibniz in just one hour.

Leibniz was the first great German philosopher to produce an all-embracing philosophical system. He came to the remarkable conclusion that space and time do not exist – they are mere superstitious assumptions. Only things exist and only God is able to see things as they truly are – from a perspectiveless viewpoint. Yet the infinite of ultimate objects that make up the world (‘monads’) are not material: they are metaphysical and thus not subject to the laws of cause and effect. Their apparent interaction is the result of a ‘pre-established’ harmony that is part of God’s creation.

Here is a concise, expert account of Leibniz’s life and philosophical ideas that is entertainingly written and easy to understand. Also included are selections from Leibniz’s work, suggested further reading, and chronologies that place Leibniz in the context of the broader scheme of philosophy.

©2012 Paul Strathern (P)2013 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

"Well-written, clear and informed, they have a breezy wit about them... I find them hard to stop reading" ( New York Times)
"Witty, illuminating, and blessedly concise" ( Wall Street Journal)
"Each of these little books is witty and dramatic and creates a sense of time, place, and character... I cannot think of a better way to introduce oneself and one's friends to Western civilization" ( Boston Globe)
"A godsend in this era of the short attention span" ( New York Times)

What listeners say about Leibniz: Philosophy in an Hour

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    25
  • 4 Stars
    14
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    22
  • 4 Stars
    8
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    20
  • 4 Stars
    8
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Paul and Jonathan are great. Leibeniz super

Truly enjoying the Series. The duo works. Leibeniz is great book as usual, learning a lot and laughing a lot

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very Interesting

What made the experience of listening to Leibniz: Philosophy in an Hour the most enjoyable?

The format was good with a nice max of history about the man and about his philosophy, it was short and to the point (which I guess is the point of the series). The narrator was pretty good, not too slow and not too fast. I will be checking out other books in the series.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Outstanding

I had purchased a few of these philosophy in an hour audibles....this was so good I have just come back in and purchased every single one with lamenting that there are not more. So very entertaining. The quintessentially British one-liners peppered in are delightful! I wasn't expecting humour. Pure pleasure in listening and learning.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A wild rollercoaster ride of a life dedicated to making sense of chaos

Warm, witty and lively, the crisp narration of this whistle-stop express through the career of the iconic system-builder's system-builder succeeds in what to me might have otherwise seemed impossible: making Leibnitz's labyrinthine complexity not just make sense, but occasionlly even making me laugh out loud. An audio book that sets a high standard.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Fascinating

L. seems to have been the archetypal mad genius, with his mind going in a hundred different directions and a total indifference to anything he found boring. It's amazing how little-known he is, considering the remarkable range of discoveries he made. What would the world be like if he'd taken his calculating machine further?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!