Watches
Leibniz is a lover of the metaphor and simile. Such that not only are there numerable examples littered throughout his many texts, but he often draws upon the same comparison across those texts. One of his favorite is a comparison of creation of the universe to a machine like a watch:
“…something that would make the machine of the world as imperfect as that of an unskillful watchmaker surely must be a flaw”
Wisdom
Leibniz speaks often of wisdom and has a distinct metaphorical sense of its construction which is necessary for understanding other concepts:
“Wisdom is a perfect knowledge of the principles of all the sciences and the art of applying them.”
Justice
One can only understand the philosopher’s concept of justice if they first apprehend the definition of wisdom. For Leibniz, justice is inextricably linked to wisdom:
“Fundamentally, justice is nothing else than charity conformed to wisdom.”
Charity
But justice is equally linked to charity. So what is charity?
“Charity is universal benevolence.”
And benevolence?
“Benevolence is the habit of loving.”
Loving
This equation only becomes complete if a loving gets a definition of its own. And, metaphorically true to his calculus, Leibniz comes through:
“to love is to delight in the happiness of another, or, what amounts to the same thing, it is to account another’s happiness one’s own.”
