The Doctrine of Trinitarian Perfections According to Leibniz

Abstract

In the Theodicy, as well as in other texts, Leibniz approaches the notion of Trinity in the light of three divine perfections, that is, power, understanding and will, which express the three persons. Accordingly, philosophical reason is able to draw a portrait of God that is imperfect but pervasive, both metaphysical and moral. In this paper, I first analyze those perfections, as conceived of by Leibniz, in their own essence and in their internal Trinitarian structuring. I then sift through a kind of dialectics appearing in Leibniz’s thought, when it is confronted with the relations between those perfections. Those relations take the form of antecedence, non-creation and election, and, more problematically, of mixing them and of separating them. I conclude by dwelling on what is at stake in such considerations concerning the two Leibnizian topoi of the eternal return and relation.