In his Monadology, Leibniz describes the existence and nature of & Monads& or substances.

Leibniz believes
that it is impossible for there to be any kind of causal interaction between the Monads. Yet, he also states that
each Monad reflects the system as a whole, including any change in any other Monad. So then, to explain how
it is that this & mirroring& takes place, without the existence of any causal interaction, Leibniz puts forth his
Principle of Pre-Established Harmony.
The Principle of Pre-Established Harmony states that Monads only appear to interact with each other. In
reality, God created each Monad and programmed it with certain dispositions in such a way that at each
instant, the perceptions of each Monad (soul, mind, and body) will always correspond. Leibniz rejects any idea
of God intervening in reality, so it is at creation that all Monads were programmed to co-ordinate in reality
without need for interference.
An example of this would be if one were to be hit in the head with and object, the result would be pain and a
physical response like holding ones hand to the wounded area. In reality the object would not have actually hit
the persons head, but only stopped at that point in space and time because it was pre-determined to do so. The
mind of the body that was hit would have been pre-determined to have experienced pain at that exact time in
history, and the body itself was pre-determined to react physically in the way it did, none of the three things
caused or were caused by any of the others.
Leibniz principle is best known for being a possible to solution to the mind/body interaction problem that
many philosophers of his time were struggling with. By stating that the entire universe is made up of noninteraction pieces, there is no longer a need to try and explain the minds influence on the body, or vice versa,
since there is no actual interaction taking place. However, Leibniz includes all interaction in his principle,
explaining all physical casual relationships in the same way.
Leibniz's account for the nature and number of substances differs significantly from Spinoza's. For Spinoza,
there is only one substance in the world: God. Leibniz essentially agrees that there is only one true substance.
However, to Leibniz this substance is the monad, comparable to a soul or spirit, which & is nothing but a
simple substance that enters into composites.& For Leibniz, God exists external to the world of monads, and
might be best thought of as a type of & supersubstance& or & supermonad.& It was God who set the world in
motion; therefore, substances depend on God for their existence.
Since Leibniz's God possesses the will to create or destroy substances & in accordance with the principle of the
best& , God is the only necessary being. All other monads, then, depend on Him for their existence, and as
such, are non-eternal contingent beings. Spinoza's pantheism forces the conclusion that all substance is eternal;
if it were not eternal, then it would have to be created, which would then violate his definition of substance as
something & that the conception of which does not require the conception of another thing from which it has to
be formed.&
With respect to final causes, Leibniz and Spinoza also differ greatly. Spinoza, like most other 17th century
philosophers, rejected the idea of final causes, however, he alone denied that God could have ends. He
believed that final causes were a construct of the ignorance of man, to justify and refer all the natural
phenomena around him. That is to say, man uses the idea of final causes to make that claim that all natural
phenomena are directed by God to man's benefit.
Religious preoccupations seem to have guided Leibniz in his attitude toward final causes.
Leibniz was one of the few philosophers of his time to defend the idea of final causes. He maintained that
Descartes' antifinalism led to Spinoza's determinism. Leibniz argued for the subordination of mechanical to
final causes; in addition, he tended to inject final causes also into physics. For Leibniz, the core idea behind the
Principle of Pre-Established Harmony required the existence of final causes, to which all of the programming
for the Monads would be directed.