Abstract

Leibniz initially believed in the absoluteness of time and place, but later he changed his idea. His true and final view is that time and place are relative and subjective concepts, whereas Newton believed that they are absolute and have a real and objective existence independent of other phenomena. In his correspondence with Samuel Clark, he refers to the weak points of the views of Newton and Clark and presents several philosophical and theological arguments to reject them. Time and place are treated in his philosophy ontologically, and their existence is relative. Epistemologically speaking, these concepts correspond to phenomena and depend on external phenomena and objects. From a psychological point of view, these concepts are formed in the mind through observing the relations among objective phenomena. Time and place are attributes of phenomena rather than monads or simple substances.In contrast to Newton's idea, the existence of an empty place or vacuum is impossible and in contradiction to Leibniz's accepted principles. He has presented some metaphysical and theological arguments on rejecting this issue in most of his works.