[S]ince something rather nothing exists, there is a certain urge for existence or (so to speak) a straining toward existence in possible things or in possibility or essence itself; in a word, essence in and of itself strives for existence.

Leibniz is alternately brilliant and bizarre in his line of thought. As you're reading, it's clear that you're in the presence of a masterful intellect, but many of his arguments hinge on some less than intuitive assumptions. One of his most startling conclusions is his solution to the problem of evil in The Monadology: the actual world is the best of all possible worlds. Essentially, since God is all good and possesses perfect reason, all that appears evil to us is a constituent of a larger "best possible world"—we just can't see the big picture. Needless to say, if you think God does not exist or that God is not all good, then there's a clear problem here. ( )

Definitely interesting and makes me want to re-read the Theodicy. After reading Schelling thoroughly, it is clear that Leibniz influenced him. The most noticeable area being Schelling's distinction between "sein" and "wesen" and how they relate to each other as aspects of being. Some of Leibniz's ideas were found subsequently to be incorrect, at least in part (e.g. infinite divisibility of matter), but there is still a lot here worth pondering. ( )