Section 14 begins with the claim that …show more content…
This follows from the assertion that substances flow from God as isolated notions, all holding views of the entire universe and of every perception they experience. Each perception arises from those which came before it, in a regression of mental states to that substance's inception. Therefore, were one to view the notion of a substance in its entirety, one would find every event, or predicate, of that substance within it. Leibniz concludes from this that, even if there were no other substances to perceptually correspond with, these events would be undisrupted in a substance so long as it existed alongside God …show more content…
Since God is their cause, it is also coherent to posit that their notions are complete. Nevertheless, if my perceptions could remain intact despite my being the only substance besides God, surely there could be no accurate, multifaceted expression of the universe's entirety. Despite having a complete notion, I cannot express this in virtue of being an imperfect substance with imperfect expressions. Also, my perceptions would not be the same regardless of whether other perceiving substances existed, since an alteration in even a single predicate would require an entirely different universe. While the non-existence of other substances is not impossible due to their notions, in their absence it appears I could not be the same substance I am in the actual world, given the relation between my complete notion and everything in the