The Principle of Sufficient Reason

Abstract

The basic philosophical difficulty people feel in believing in freewill lies in the fact that this doctrine seems to violate the principle of sufficient reason. Now the principle of sufficient reason is simply the doctrine that behind every event whatever there is a “sufficient,” i.e., entirely adequate, reason for its happening rather than something else happening. This of course is nothing but the principle of causality or determinism expressed in different words. In any event, Leibniz, who enunciated the principle of sufficient reason (and who was a determinist) was quite right in emphasizing this principle and in placing it alongside the principle of contradiction as a fundamental postulate of reason. I do not say that the principle was or is correct; only that he was right in emphasizing it, for, correct or not, it is an idea of high importance.