Leibnizian Philosophy and the Pluralism of Religion and Culture: The Case of China

Abstract

In this paper, I present Leibniz’s understanding of natural theology and reason for which, according to him, any person in the world has her natural reason, through which she can realize eternal truths such as that every human soul is immortal. Secondly I discuss how Leibniz evaluated the Chinese theology. According to him, the ancient Chinese understood God or the supreme substance by the name of “Li (?)” or Shangdi (??), and without a revelation they knew that God created everything in the universe in accordance with His providence. Then I argue that although Leibniz’s understanding of the Chinese theology was not altogether accurate, we can still understand that in a limited sense, Leibniz had a pluralistic view in terms of religion and culture that can foster dialogue today between the philosophies of the world.