Leibniz's Philosophical Methodology and His Philosophy

I examine Leibniz's philosophy, both early and mature, from a methodological and structural point of view. Leibniz's philosophical methodology is shown to have received significant influence from that of Hobbes, whose natural philosophy consists of a demonstrative, necessary part and a hypothetical part. I argue that the same holds for Leibniz and that Leibniz consistently constructs his philosophical system based on his methodology. The most important consequence that I draw from this is that the mature metaphysics of Leibniz, namely his metaphysics of monads, is most likely a hypothesis.