His theory of experience, therefore, closely parallels the atomistic theory of matter.

Metaphysics: the Monads, Representation, the Pre-established Harmony; the Laws of Thought and of the World.% Leibnitz develops his new concept of substance, the monad, in conjunction with, yet in opposition to, the Cartesian and the atomistic conceptions.

In Fries this non-Kantian element comes from Jacobi's philosophy of faith; in Herbart it comes from the monadology of Leibnitz, and the ancient Eleatico-atomistic doctrine; in Schopenhauer, from the religion of India and (as in Beneke) from the sensationalism of the English and the French.

But the atomistic and unrelated sensations which he had in mind were purely fictitious products of his rationalist fancy.