Indivisibles and Motion in Leibniz’s Continuum

Abstract

This paper proposes to analyze the interaction between the concept of indivisible and some considerations regarding motion in Leibniz’s early thought on the continuum problem. It will reveal that indivisibles, which have been introduced in the context of a theory of motion, have been denied later once reviewed the status of motion in his theory of matter. Accordingly: in the first part we will analyze the structure of the actual infinite in the general context of Theoria motus abstracti; secondly, we will consider the particular problem of the unequal speed of motions; at last, we will examine the critic to his indivisibles theory in his De minimo et maximo.