In his 1720 work, Monadology, G.W. Leibniz used the analogy of a mill to argue that consciousness cannot arise from mere matter, asserting that an observer walking through the mechanical operations of an expanded brain would not see any conscious thoughts.

Authors

• Person: Not available Organization: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  Consciousness (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Fall 2025 ...

Sources

• Consciousness (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Fall 2025 ... plato.stanford.edu Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy via serper

Referenced by nodes (4)

• matter concept
• Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz entity
• brain concept
• consciousness concept