How is the following passage from Leibniz's Monadology significant? Discuss its prelapsarian or postlapsarian nature and other themes.

"69. Thus there is nothing fallow, nothing sterile, nothing dead in the universe, no chaos, no confusion save in appearance, somewhat as it might appear to be in a pond at a distance, in which one would see a confused movement and, as it were, a swarming of fish in the pond, without separately distinguishing the fish themselves. (Theod. Pref. [E. 475 b; 477 b; G. vi. 40, 44])"

This passage from Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’s short philosophical text Monadology connects to prelapsarian and postlapsarian perspectives on life and being. Leibniz’s insistence that there is “no chaos” and “no confusion” links to the harmony of life before the Fall. Prior to Eve’s bite of the forbidden fruit, life in Eden was ordered. There was no strife or difficulty. Everything existed in unison.

Of course, once Eve transgressed the tree of knowledge, chaos came about. John Milton, who wrote many poems and pamphlets on religion during the seventeenth century, reinforces the distinction between postlapsarian and prelapsarian life in Areopagitica. Milton writes,

Truth indeed came once into the world with her divine Master, and was a perfect shape most glorious to look on.

Following the Fall, that truth was, in Milton's words, “scattered.” Leibniz seems to think otherwise. He contends that there continues to be rhyme and reason in the world even after the Fall.

The intention that Leibniz spots in the postlapsarian world relates to other keywords listed in the question, including accident and chance. Based off of the passage, it’s hard to argue that Leibniz places much credence in accident. Things don’t come about by chance. There is, according to Leibniz, a purposeful design behind everything in the universe.

Leibniz allows for the fact that, sometimes, things might come across as bewildering, but that’s just “appearance.” If one takes the time to investigate and think it over, they should eventually discover some kind of order or logic.

What is the significance of the following passage from Leibniz's Monadology, and how does it relate to Enlightenment philosophy?

"69. Thus there is nothing fallow, nothing sterile, nothing dead in the universe, no chaos, no confusion save in appearance, somewhat as it might appear to be in a pond at a distance, in which one would see a confused movement and, as it were, a swarming of fish in the pond, without separately distinguishing the fish themselves. (Theod. Pref. [E. 475 b; 477 b; G. vi. 40, 44])"

Those who have not studied Leibniz are often most familiar with his worldview from Voltaire's satirical depiction of Dr. Pangloss in Candide. Pangloss espouses the philosophy that "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds." It is passages such as this which clearly irritated Voltaire. Leibniz tells the reader that wherever they think they see chaos, they are merely failing to discern a divine cosmic order which is not immediately apparent.

This view of the world is an Enlightenment attempt to "justify the ways of God to men," as Milton puts it in Paradise Lost, a process known as theodicy. The problem of evil is an ancient one, put by Epicurus in the following terms: if God is both omnipotent and completely benevolent, then why is there suffering in the world? Leibniz's theodicy offers the following answer: What you perceive as suffering, chaos, or evil, is not what you think it is. If you had a divine perspective, you would see that it is necessary for a plan that is, overall, benevolent and wise. Even an event such as the fall of man is described by Leibniz as the "felix culpa," (the fortunate fall) because it allowed both the redemption of humanity through the love of Christ, and the development of a complex postlapsarian civilization, which includes the Enlightenment itself.