Divine Machines by Smith Justin E. H.; Smith Justin E. H. E. H.;

Author:Smith, Justin E. H.; Smith, Justin E. H. E. H.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press

Preformation and Preestablished Harmony

Divine preformation is not just a necessary consequence of Leibniz’s model of infinitely complex organic bodies but also of his adoption of the doctrine of preestablished harmony. Because there must always be a body “proportioned to the perceptions” of every simple being, and because simple beings cannot come into or go out of existence, it follows that every simple being has always existed in an organically embodied form. The preestablishment of harmonious perceptions and the preformation of organic bodies are of a pair.

Divine preformation, as we have already seen in chapter 3, plays a crucial role in Leibniz’s rejection of Cudworth’s immaterial plastic natures. In her summary of Leibniz’s metaphysics, Cudworth’s daughter, Damaris Masham, ascribes to Leibniz what she calls the “Principle of Uniformitie,” correctly discerning the connectedness of the preformation on the one hand and the infinite complexity of the organic body on the other:

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