ACR Essay, Synytsia, Maya, A2

Gottfried Leibniz distinguished between two kinds of true propositions:  the truths of reason and the truths of fact. The truths of reason are a priori, while the truths of fact are empiric. The truths of reason are absolutely true and necessary, unlike the truths of fact, which are circumstantial. Finally, the truths of reason are based on the law of noncontradiction and the law of identity, while the truths of fact are based on the law of sufficient reason, first formulated by Leibniz himself. The laws of logic, mathematical axioms, and fundamental moral principles are truths of reason, while true existential statements are truths of fact.

Being a rationalist, Leibniz claimed that while the truths of fact are purely circumstantial, the primary truths of reason are fixated in the logical structure of all possible worlds, thus being the basic truths. From the empirical point of view, however, the truths of reason should be initial, and the axioms (the truths of reason) should be inducted from them. Leibniz negates this point, views the facts as motives to acknowledge and formulate the universal statements, which are independent from the truths of fact, and argues that the latter derive from the truths of reason. Statements of sensually perceived facts are demands confirmation with corresponding perceptions, which prove to be unreliable, relative, and lack absolute veracity.

Leibniz does not deny that knowledge is essentially based on sentient experience; yet he claims the experience itself gives only random facts. He describes animals as “pure empiricists”, which only rely on the facts, unable to reach necessary conclusions from them. People, however, are able to formulate general truths, following logical arguments. Thus, the source of veracity is found in the reason, and not in the facts.

Sources:
Gottfried Leibniz // Stanford Encyclopedia of Philisophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/leibniz/
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