Abstract

In his criticism of Leibniz's principle of the identity of indiscernibles, Strawson employs an argument featuring consciousnesses together with a symmetrical universe. Unfortunately enough, Leibniz seems to handle with such a possibility in book II, chapter xxvii of his "New Essays on Human Understanding", a text explicitly written as a reply to Locke's most famous work. After having tested out the theses and the intents of both Leibniz and Locke, I conclude that the resemblance between Leibniz's example and Strawson's is only apparent, because the point Leibniz is trying to defend in that passage is not the identity of indiscernibles at all.