Acerca de las cualidades ocultas según Leibniz

Abstract

This paper analyzes Leibniz’s criticisms of occult qualities. As Descartes and Boyle did before him, Leibniz rejects hidden qualities because they contradict the mechanist model of explanation, but also for other epistemological reasons. Leibniz’s main argument aims to show that occult qualities are not simple forms, contrary to what Aquinas and Sennert maintain, but rather that they are relative elements that can be reduced to either metaphysical or physical principles