From 1695 Leibniz came to the view that the best way to capture what it is to be a substance is through the concept of ‘monad’. ‘Monad’, Leibniz explained, comes from the Greek monas ‘which signifies unity, or that which is one’. ‘Monads’ outlines Leibniz’s counter-intuitive metaphysical model by explaining his definitions of unity, simplicity, activity, force, perception, and appetite. His view was that simple, immaterial, non-extended, indivisible entities are the condition of the existence of composed, material, extended, divisible entities. The world of extended bodies studied by physics is ultimately intelligible only if we postulate metaphysical entities that must exist in order for those extended bodies to exist.
Pandemic disruption, extended bodies, and elastic situations - Reflections on COVID-19 and Mobilities
