Absorption Of Empiricism In Leibniz’s Epistemology

European history of philosophy,which is from the sixteenth century to the eighteenth,can be said to be a piece of history when Empiricism and Rationalism debate each other and learn from each other.Since philosophy was established, philosophers of various stages have paid close attention to epistemological issues.In the initial stage of debate between empiricism and rationalism, they showed a sharp disagreement and confrontation in the epistemological issues.Meanwhile, in the interior of empiricism and rationalism, different philosophers hold different opinions about major issues of epistemology.The philosophy of this stage is gradually improved in the confrontation and coordination of the debate.On one hand, as a rationalist, Leibniz’s system of philosophy is the inheritance and development of Descartes and Spinoza’s philosophies, and on another hand, it is improved in the debate with the empiricist such as Locke.Leibniz’s transcendental and rationalistic epistemology absorbs the rational factors of empiricism into his system,which is based on the summarization of the basic characteristics of rationalistic epistemology and rethink of the lessons from the debate with the empiricists.Overall, Leibniz’epistemological philosophy is based on the wrong stance of idealism, but it should be seen that Leibniz absorbs factors of empiricism into its epistemological system creatively.He treats innate ideas as a potential cognitive ability and recognizes understanding as a dynamic process of development and change. And he also proposes the Two Truths and the view that reasons will be sufficient on the basis of law of contradiction.It is progressively significant that these views affirm the importance of sensory and experience to some extent.The paper attempts to discuss the ideological origins and main content of Leibniz’s epistemological system against the background of debate between Empiricism and Rationalism in modern Europe.That Leibniz absorbs factors of empiricism into its epistemological system will be focused on,with a view to illustrating the great effect of Leibniz’s epistemology on the later philosophy.The paper will be divided into three parts. The first part is the summary of Leibniz’s ontology and epistemology. The second part is that the factors of empiricism are highly regarded by Leibniz’s epistemology. The third part is the effect and inspiration of Leibniz’s epistemology.This article discusses the following three aspects:The first part is the summary of Leibniz’s ontology and epistemology. The second part is that the factors of empiricism are highly regarded by Leibniz’s epistemology. The third part is the effect and inspiration of Leibniz’s epistemology.