This volume presents two Leibnizian writings the Specimen of Philosophical Questions Collected
from the Law and the Dissertation on Perplexing Cases. These works originally published in
1664 and 1666 constitute respectively Leibniz¿s thesis for the title of Master of Philosophy
and his doctoral dissertation in law. Besides providing evidence of the earliest development of
Leibniz¿s thought and amazing anticipations of his mature views they present a genuine
intellectual interest for the freshness and originality of Leibniz¿s reflections on a striking
variety of logico-philosophical puzzles drawn from the law. The Specimen addresses puzzling
issues resulting from apparent conflicts between law and philosophy (the latter broadly
understood as comprising also mathematics as well as empirical sciences). The Dissertation
addresses cases whose solution is puzzling because of the convoluted logical form of legal
dispositions and contractual clauses or because of conflicting priorities between concurring
parties. In each case Leibniz dissects the problems with the greatest ingenuity disentangling
their different aspects and proposing solutions always reasonable and sometimes surprising.
And he does not refrain from peppering his intellectual acrobatics with some humorous comments.
