 In order to more fully appreciate the exoteric features of the Système nouveau it will be helpful to consider this text in relation to Leibniz’s earlier Discours de métaphysique (Discourse on Metaphysics). Leibniz wrote the Discours in 1686. Although it was not published during his lifetime, this text has become one of Leibniz’s most famous works. It is best known for presenting the complete concept theory of substance. This theory states, roughly, that each substance has an infinitely complex complete concept that specifies everything that will ever happen to that substance. It is contained in the complete concept of Judas, for example, that he betrays Jesus (along with everything else that can be truly predicated of Judas). Leibniz was well aware that his readers might think that the complete concept theory implies that all of a person’s actions are necessary, and thus that no person is free. In the main text of the Discours and in its section headings Leibniz attempts to show that Judas’ betrayal of Jesus, for example, is both contingent and a free action despite being foreseen in Judas’ complete concept for all eternity. Part of Leibniz’s strategy for showing this is his claim that Judas’ reasons for betraying Jesus “incline without necessitating”. Leibniz’s discussion of these thorny philosophical issues is exoteric, at least to a certain degree. Like the Système nouveau it was not written in strict accordance with the esoteric mode of presentation. And arguably, Leibniz’s use of language such as “inclination without necessitation” is carefully chosen with the aim of making his position seem closer to received views.