Subject and Certainty. Normative and Critical Principles of Leibniz''s Notion of Subject
Examining the problem of subject in close relation with the problem of certainty, Leibniz demarcates in this matter several different points of view and, respectively, several different notions of subject. Therefore, although Leibniz uses the term "subject" predominantly in metaphysical meaning, in the controversies, nevertheless, he distinguishes at least five meanings of this term: empirical, gnoseological, epistemical, phenomenological and metaphysical. Since he understood philosophy as the constantly developing system, and its development - expression of human spirit striving for bigger certainty, the bearer of such knowledge Leibniz views neither empirical nor even the transcendental subject, but the whole humanity in the history of its development. In Leibniz' system The God also is the special kind of subject.