A typical view of Leibniz' extraordinary metaphysical and methodological views is to regard them as having appeared by certain "applications" of his mathematical and physical discoveries. If we believe Couturat and Russell the monadology is largely only the expression of certain logically formal relationships: it is the logic of Leibniz that is basic to his mature metaphysics.² Even more typical is the view that Leibniz' work in mathematics, especially his work on the calculus, is the source of the key ideas in his metaphysics. J. M. Child, the translator of the early mathematical manuscripts, says it straight out: "... the main ideas of [Leibniz'] philosophy are to be attributed to his mathematical work, and not vice versa." ³ In a philosophically much more interesting way Paul Schrecker argues that what he calls Leibniz' "infimitesimal method," a method obviously derived from his mathematical work, pervades all of the important basic contributions ofboth his metaphysics and methodology. The infinitesimal method involves a rationalist postulate expressing the view that ordinary modes of thought (and ordinary modes of language) be replaced by rigorous formal systems of expression and calculation. his work in logic, especially symbolic logic, and his mathematical investigations led him to seek to extend this postulate to the entire area of scientifiic endeavor. For science to progress, this postulate must be adopted in order to conquer the unfortunate excesses of intuition and imagination.