Compossibility

Abstract: This is a paperback reprint of a cloth edition published in 1994. Adams presents an in-depth interpretation of three important parts of Leibniz's metaphysics, thoroughly grounded in the texts as well as in philosophical analysis and critique. The three areas discussed are the metaphysical part of Leibniz's philosophy of logic, his essentially theological treatment of the central issues of ontology, and his theory of substance. Adams' work helps make sense of one of the great classic systems of modern philosophy.

Abstract: This is the first, and indeed the definitive systematic account of the wide-ranging philosophical ideas of Leibniz The author, a highly respected analytical philosopher, has brought his own formidable abilities to bear on the unwieldy and inaccessible corpus of Leibniz's work

Abstract: The essay offers an introduction to the special issue and further attempts to situate the concept of the prototype within the larger field of an anthropology of prefiguration. I make a particular claim for the rise of ‘prototyping’ as a cultural discourse today, in design, engineering and artistic circles but also among analogous experimental moments in social studies of science and critical theory. I focus in particular on the affordances of the prototype as material culture and sociological theory: prototyping as something that happens to social relationships when one approaches the craft and agency of objects in particular ways. Last, the essay examines the work that prototypes do as figures of suspension and expectation, where they can be seen to function as ‘traps’ for the emergence of compossibility. They offer in this guise a design for contemporary complexity that is at once ‘more than many and less than one’.