Organism is a neologism introduced almost simultaneously by the physician G. E. Stahl and the philosopher G. W. Leibniz at the end of the seventeenth century, in order to designate the peculiar way of organization of living matter. However, the sense that each of these authors gives to the term organism is different and even contrasting, prompting a lively controversy between them.

For Stahl, organism is an original structure with its own functions, whereas for Leibniz, who recognizes the specificity of the living beings, organism is no more than a special mechanism, a subtler one. The correlation between the somatic and the psychic level equally occupies a relevant place in this controversy: Stahl advocates the soul’s ability to influence the body and its functions, whilst Leibniz rejects the immediate effectiveness of the soul on the body, arguing that their exchange is accomplished by means of the harmonic agreement of psychic and somatic phenomena.

The International Conference “The Leibniz-Stahl Controversy. Points of View on the Notion of Organism” aims to deepen and discuss the meaning of this controversy in its medico-philosophical context, as well as to investigate its actuality in the scientific and heuristic domains, particularly with regard to the mind-body relationship. 

Within the framework of this Conference, it will be held a presentation of the book “The Leibniz-Stahl Controversy” (Yale University Press), a work which gathers for the first time all the pieces of the Leibniz-Stahl controversy, in a thorough bilingual version (Latin and English) edited by François Duchesneau and Justin Smith.  

Executive Committee

Scientific Committee

Organization