Leibniz Philosophical Papers (1677–1686)
The Edition<br>Edition
Volumes<br>Volumes
Behind the Edition<br>Behind
Support the Project<br>Support
About the Editor<br>About
Archive<br>Archive
A Scholarly Edition of
Leibniz’s Philosophical Papers
Recovering the philosophical manuscripts of one of the great architects of the modern world.
Edited and translated by Lloyd Strickland
Explore the First Three Volumes
The first three volumes of Leibniz’s Philosophical Papers will be published by Oxford University Press on 30 April 2026, marking the completion of the project’s first stage.
2000 pages · Nearly 1 million words · 314 texts
203 texts in English for the first time
7 previously unpublished · 1 previously unpublished in full
A Long-Term Editorial Project
The three volumes of Leibniz’s Philosophical Papers (1677–1686) published by Oxford University Press represent the first stage in a larger project to recover Leibniz’s philosophical writings directly from manuscript sources and present them in a scholarly English edition.
Leibniz continued writing philosophy for another thirty years after 1686, and much of this later work has never been brought together in a modern English edition. The project now turns to these later writings. Support is now being sought to continue this work.
Support the Project →
The Edition
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) was one of the great architects of the modern intellectual world —<br>co-inventor of calculus, pioneer of symbolic logic, designer of early calculating machines, and a philosopher<br>of extraordinary range. Yet much of his philosophical work remains accessible only through difficult manuscript sources or scattered scholarly publications.
The edition presented here seeks to recover those writings and make them accessible in a modern scholarly form.
The First Three Volumes
The first three volumes of Leibniz’s Philosophical Papers, published by Oxford University Press on 30 April 2026,<br>present a crucial decade in the development of Leibniz’s philosophy: the years 1677–1686 , when many of his central ideas first took shape.
These writings include major projects such as the universal characteristic, the encyclopaedia and General Science,<br>early metaphysical works, and Leibniz’s reflections on religion and church reunion.
These texts have been established directly from manuscript sources, allowing the edition to present a coherent body of Leibniz’s philosophical work from this crucial decade.
Leibniz at Work
A page from one of Leibniz’s philosophical manuscripts ("The Place of Others"), showing revisions, deletions, marginalia, and binary notation as he developed his ideas.
Leibniz’s manuscripts often contain layers of revision — sentences crossed out, ideas rewritten,<br>and arguments developed in the margins. Establishing the text requires reconstructing his thought from these complex handwritten sources.
Many of the texts in this edition were recovered from heavily revised drafts containing deletions,<br>additions, and multiple stages of composition, allowing us to see Leibniz thinking on the page.
Leibniz’s Philosophical Papers (1677–1686)
The edition appears in three volumes devoted to Leibniz’s philosophical writings from 1677 to 1686.
Universal Language, Characteristic, Logic,
Encyclopaedia, and General Science
Metaphysics, Natural Philosophy,
Ethics, and Jurisprudence
Religion and Theology
A Larger Editorial Project
The volumes devoted to 1677–1686 represent the completed first stage of a larger editorial project. Leibniz continued writing philosophy<br>for another thirty years, and much of this later work has never been brought together in a modern English edition. Bringing these writings together is essential for understanding the development of Leibniz’s philosophy across the full span of his career.
The project now turns to producing further volumes that will gradually bring together Leibniz’s philosophical writings<br>across the full span of his career.
In doing so, the edition seeks to make more fully accessible the work of one of the great architects of the modern intellectual world,<br>whose ideas shaped philosophy, mathematics, theology, and the intellectual foundations of modern computing.
1677–1686
First stage (published April 2026)
1687–1696
Next phase, in preparation
1697–1706
Later philosophical writings
1707–1716
Final decade
Book reports and reading notes
Supplementary volume
Behind the Edition
Videos<br>Leibniz Dispatches
Rediscovering Leibniz
A New Edition of Leibniz’s Philosophical Papers.
Dating Leibniz
On dating the manuscripts used in Leibniz’s Philosophical Papers.
Capturing Leibniz
Reading lost passages from Leibniz’s manuscripts.
Deciphering Leibniz
Correcting editorial slips.
Reconstructing Leibniz
Dealing with damaged manuscripts.
Unearthing Leibniz
Seven previously unpublished texts in the new edition.
Introducing Leibniz
The editor’s introduction in the new edition.
Narrating Leibniz
The path from a proposed...