Abstract

Leibniz's theory of space and time is based on the action of simple substances which constitute themselves by their actions. This applies to substances that come into existence as well as to those that remain a possibility. They do not act within space and time but constitute space and time by virtue of their own intrinsic activity. This certainly requires, as Leibniz demands, a kind of Copernican turn around in our minds. As long as 30 years before his well-known epistolatory exchange with Samuel Clarke he had laid the basis of his revolutionary theory which, being metaphysical, could not expect to receive the acceptance of the science-orientated Clarke or his master Newton. This paper tries to explain this new insight by looking at the development of the conception of space and time as concepts of order or as relations and not as real things or substances