Abstract

ESCOBAR VIRE, Maximiliano. Leibniz's Moral Necessity: Alethic Content and Specific Meaning. Rev. latinoam. filos. [online]. 2014, vol.40, n.2, pp.145-170. ISSN 1852-7353.

In his last years, Leibniz employs the concept of moral necessity to qualify God's choice of the best. However, he doesn't explain this concept accurately. This paper intends to show that leibnizian moral necessity cannot be conceived as a purely deontic modality, because it would be contrary to the metaphysical grounds which make Leibniz's ethics strictly teleological. This paper also proposes an interpretation of the alethic content of this concept, based on the necessary connection that Leibniz seems to assign to the relationship between free will and the tendency towards good. What this necessity entails is that, for Leibniz, even though the infinity of reasons involved makes every choice contingent, God is metaphysically necessitated to follow the rule of the best.

Keywords : Moral necessity; Deontic/alethic modality; Choice of the best; Will; Freedom.

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