The  problem  had  previously  presented  itself  to  Relation
Leibnitz,  who  had  tried  to  solve  it  by  making  both  ^^l'^^'"^
identical.     He  had  tried  to  establish  a  point-to-point  pJ^'J^^'^y
identity  between  the  ultimate  divisions  in  matter  tension
and  the  ultimate  divisions  existing  between  the  minds  phiraiity
or  substances  underlying  matter.     He  had  maintained  °^  held  by
that  indi\dsibility  is   a   necessary   characteristic   of  Leibnitz,
substance  ;  he  had  also  maintained  that  the  extended
world  is  substantial ;    coupling  together  these  two
positions    he    arrived    at    the    conclusion    that   the
extended  world,  although  infinitely  divisible,  must
have  as  its  basis  an  ultimate  indivisibility  ;   he  held


of  this


78         LOTZE'S  THEORY  OF  REALITY

that  only  minds  are  ultimately  indivisible  and  that
therefore  the  infinite  divisions  in  extended  matter  are
in  reality  infinite  divisions  among  souls.  He  tells
us  that  these  souls,  by  a  certain  force  of  resistance  to
each  other  which  they  possess,  prescribe  places  for
each  external  to  the  other  and  so  give  rise  to  a  whole
Criticism  that  is  extended.  The  obvious  criticism  against  this
is  that  this  force  of  resistance,  in  prescribing  places
for  souls  external  to  each  other,  does  not  give  rise  to
extension  but  already  presupposes  it.  Leibnitz  him-
self saw  this  difficulty  and  tried  to  avoid  it  by  main-
taining that  the  extended  world,  as  such,  is  not  real
but  only  phenomena  bene  fundata.  It  is  a  some-
thing which,  as  extended,  only  exists  in  the  con-
sciousness of  the  apprehending  subject ;  it  is  produced
in  this  subject  by  the  action  of  a  real,  unextended
world  upon  it.  Thus  it  may  be  said  that  minds,
through  the  fact  that  they  form  a  real  plurality,  do
not  enter  into  each  other's  being,  or  do  not  inter-
penetrate one  another ;  the  efforts  of  each  to  keep
others  from  penetrating  its  own  being  are  inter-
preted by  the  apprehending  subject  as  spatial  resist-
ance and  are  considered  as  giving  rise  to  spatial
relations.  Thus  what  is  in  reality  an  unextended
world  comes  to  be  apprehended  as  extended.
