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When I began to think about the union of the soul with the body, it
was like casting me back into the open sea, for I found no way to
explain how the body causes anything to take place in the soul, or
vice versa, or how one substance can communicate with another
created substance. So far as we can know from his writings, Descartes
gave up the struggle over this problem. But seeing that the common
opinion is inconceivable, his disciples concluded that we sense the
qualities of bodies because God causes thoughts to arise in our soul
on the occasion of material movements and that, when our soul in its
turn wishes to move the body, God moves the body for it. And since
the communication of motion also seemed inconceivable to them, they
believed that God imparts motion to a body on the occasion of the
motion of another body. This they call the System of Occasional
Causes; it has had great vogue as a result of the beautiful
reflections of the author of the Recherche de la
vérite. It must be admitted that this has definitely penetrated the
difficulty in showing us what cannot take place. But it does not seem
to have removed the difficulty by showing us what actually does
happen. It is quite true that, speaking with metaphysical rigor,
there is no real influence of one created substance upon another and
that all things, with all their reality, are continually produced by
the power of God. But problems are not solved merely by making use of
a general cause and calling in what is called the deus ex
machina. To do this without offering any other
explanation drawn from the order of secondary causes is, properly
speaking, to have recourse to miracle. In philosophy we must try to
give a reason which will show how things are brought about by the
Divine Wisdom in conformity with the particular concept of the
subject in question. Being constrained, then, to admit that it is impossible for the
soul or any other true substance to receive something from without,
except by the divine omnipotence, I was led insensibly to an opinion
which surprised me, but which seems inevitable, and which has in fact
very great advantages and very significant beauties. This is that we
must say that God has originally created the soul, and every other
real unity, in such a way that everything in it must arise from its
own nature by a perfect spontaneity with regard to itself,
yet by a perfect conformity to things without. And thus,
since, our internal sensations, that is, those which are in the soul
itself and not in the brain or in the subtle parts of the body, are
merely phenomena which follow upon external events or, better, are
really appearances or like well-ordered dreams, it follows that these
perceptions internal to the soul itself come to it through its own
original constitution, that is to say, through its representative
nature, which is capable of expressing entities outside of itself in
agreement with its organs--this nature having been given it from its
creation and constituting its individual character. It is this that
makes each substance represent the entire universe accurately in its
own way and according to a definite point of view. And the
perceptions or expressions of external things reach the soul at the
proper time by virtue of its own laws, as in a world apart, and as if
there existed nothing but God and itself (to make use of the
expression of a person of exalted mind and renowned piety). So there
will be a perfect accord between all these substances which produces
the same effect that would be noticed if they all communicated with
each other by a transmission of species or of qualities, as the
common run of philosophers imagine. Furthermore, the organized mass
in which the point of view of the soul is found is itself expressed
more immediately by the soul and is in turn ready to act by itself
following the laws of the corporeal mechanism, at the moment at which
the soul wills but without either disturbing the laws of the other,
the animal spirits and the blood taking on, at exactly the right
moment, the motions required to correspond to the passions and the
perceptions of the soul. It is this mutual agreement, regulated in
advance in every substance of the universe, which produces what we
call their communication and which alone constitutes the union of
soul and body. This makes it clear how the soul has its seat in the
body by an immediate presence which could not be closer, since the
soul is in it as a unity is in the resultant of unities which is a
multitude. This hypothesis is entirely possible. For why should God be unable
to give to substance in the beginning a nature or internal force
which enables it to produce in regular order--as in an automaton
that is spiritual or formal but free in the case of that
substance which has a share of reason--everything which is to happen
to it, that is, all the appearances or expressions which it is to
have, and this without the help of any created being? Especially
since the nature of substance necessarily demands and essentially
involves progress or change and would have no force of action without
it. And since it is the nature of the soul to represent the universe
in a very exact way, though with relative degrees of distinctness,
the sequence of representations which the soul produces will
correspond naturally to the sequence of changes in the universe
itself. So the body, in turn, has also been adapted to the soul to
fit those situations in which the soul is thought of as acting
externally. This is all the more reasonable inasmuch as bodies are
made solely for the spirits themselves, who are capable of entering
into a society with God and of extolling his glory. Thus as soon as
one sees the possibility of this hypothesis of agreement,
one sees also that it is the most reasonable one and that it gives a
wonderful idea of the harmony of the universe and of the perfection
of the works of God. There is also in it the great advantage that, instead of saying
that we are free only in appearance and in a manner adequate for
practical purposes, as several intelligent persons have thought, we
must rather say that we are determined only in appearance and that in
metaphysical strictness we are in a state of perfect independence as
concerns the influence of all the other created beings. This throws a
wonderful light on the immortality of our soul as well and on the
always uniform conservation of our individual being, which is
perfectly regulated by its own nature and fully sheltered from all
accidents from without, whatever appearance there may be to the
contrary. Never has a system so clearly exhibited our elevation.
Since each mind is as a world apart and sufficient unto itself,
independent of every other created being, enveloping the infinite and
expressing the universe, it is as durable, as subsistent, as absolute
as the universe of creatures itself. We must therefore conclude that
it must always play such a part as is most fitting to contribute to
the perfection of the society of all minds, which is their moral
union in the City of God. A new proof of the existence of God can
also be found here, one of surprising clarity. For the perfect
agreement of so many substances which have no communication whatever
with each other can come only from a common source.
The Nature and Communication of Substances (from: The New System, and Explanation of the New System) by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Imagine two clocks or watches which are in perfect agreement. Now
this can happen in three ways. The first is that of
a natural influence. This is the way with which Mr. Huygens
experimented, with results that greatly surprised him. He suspended
two pendulums from the same piece of wood. The continued strokes of
the pendulums transmitted similar vibrations to the particles of
wood, but these vibrations could not continue in their own frequency
without interfering with each other, at least when the two pendulums
did not beat together. The result, by a kind of miracle, was that
even when their strokes had been intentionally disturbed, they came
to beat together again, somewhat like two strings tuned to each
other. The second way of making two clocks, even poor ones,
agree always is to assign a skilled craftsman to them who adjusts
them and constantly sets them in agreement. The third way is
to construct these two timepieces at the beginning with such skill
and accuracy that one can be assured of their subsequent
agreement.
Now put the soul and the body in the place of these two timepieces. Then their agreement or sympathy will also come about in one of these three ways. The way of influence is that of the common philosophy. But since it is impossible to conceive of material particles or of species or immaterial qualities which can pass from one of these substances into the other, this view must be rejected. The way of assistance is that of the system of occasional causes. But I hold that this makes a deus ex machina intervene in a natural and ordinary matter where reason requires that God should help only in the way in which he concurs in all other natural things. Thus there remains only my hypothesis, that is, the way of preestablished harmony, according to which God has made each of the two substances from the beginning in such a way that, though each follows only its own laws which it has received with its being, each agrees throughout with the other, entirely as if they were mutually influenced or as if God were always putting forth his hand, beyond his general concurrence. I do not think that there is anything more than this that I need to prove--unless someone should demand that I prove that God is skillful enough to make use of this foresighted artifice, of which we see samples even among men, to the extent that they are able men. And, assuming that God can do it, it is clear that this way is the most beautiful and the most worthy of him. You had suspected that my explanation would be opposed to the different idea we have of the mind and of the body. But now you clearly see that no one could establish their independence more effectively. For as long as one was obliged to explain their communication by means of a miracle, one always gave opportunity for some people to fear that the distinction between body and soul is not as real as is thought, since we were forced to go to such lengths to maintain it. Now all these scruples will cease.