• Sections 14-15 present a view that Leibniz came to refer to as “pre-established harmony.” It is stated in §14, and §15 then presents the view of causal interaction that Leibniz bases on it. (This view of causation echos one in Spinoza.)

• The rest of this assignment §§16-22 concerns a variety of views Leibniz associated with the idea of the conservation of a quantity he called vis viva (‘living force’), whose value was exactly twice what is now called “kinetic energy.” (If you understand the term “force” in the way it has been used since Newton, much of what he says will sound very strange, so it will be best to regard “force” as a term you have not encountered before and try to discern its meaning from the way Leibniz uses it.)

Leibniz refers here to the idea of a “final cause”; this is a term that Aristotle used for explanation by way of purposes, goals, or “ends” (hence, “final”). “Efficient cause” is Aristotle’s term for explanations by “causes” in what is now the usual sense of the term. (So the efficient cause for fireworks going off is chemical, but the final cause is usually the display of light.)