Write an essay (of roughly 10-12 pp. or 3000-3600 words) on some topic concerning Leibniz. In preparation for this, you will submit a topic, and submit a prospectus of 2-3 pp. or 600-900 words for class discussion.

Your essay may address an interpretive problem (i.e., a question of interpretation raised by the text), describe some aspect of Leibniz’s position on an issue or topic, or offer some combination of the two. In any case, you should focus on a single passage or small group of related passages; this is much too short a paper to survey Leibniz’s work on even a narrow topic.

Topic submission. This should be a brief description of your topic (a sentence is sufficient) together with an indication of the passage or passages you initially intend to focus on. You should also indicate some secondary source (beyond the Cambridge Companion) that you think might be relevant.

Prospectus. This should present the sort of information required for your topic submission in a way that provides a suitable basis for class discussion. Thus the bulk of the prospectus will normally be a description of the problem, topic, or issue you are addressing. In doing this, it should indicate at least the most important of the passages you expect to discuss in your paper. You should also suggest what you plan to say about your topic—i.e., what you think may be the solution to the problem or what you take to be the outlines of Leibniz’s position on the issue or topic you are addressing. The point of the discussion of your prospectus is to give you an opportunity to practice explaining these things as well as to give an opportunity to see what others think about the passages in Leibniz that your are addressing.

Final paper. This is, of course, where you will work out your ideas. Of course, ideas can change as you work them out, so things may end up looking rather different to you than they did in your prospectus; however, you should get my approval for any very large shifts in topic. This final version should definitely refer to secondary sources (again beyond the Cambridge Companion), but this is not a research paper: the point of referring to secondary sources is not to summarize scholarship on your topic but instead to help you present your ideas.