Spinoza and Leibniz

III.
The Rise of Modern

Philosophy
Continental Rationalism: Spinoza and Leibniz

III. The Rise of Modern
Philosophy
BARUCH SPINOZA
Amsterdam 1632
Ethics
Philosophy
SPINOZA’s Method
He sees mathematics as an ideal form of

scientific knowledge and aspires to
reconstruct philosophy using a
mathematical method.
Philosophy
SPINOZA’s Method
“begins with a series of

numbered definitions of key
terms, along with a numbered
set of axioms”
Philosophy
SPINOZA’s Method
Part one of the Ethics

includes eight definitions
and seven axioms
Part I: Concerning God
DEFINITIONS:
I. By that which is self—caused, I mean that of which the

essence involves existence, or that of which the nature is only
conceivable as existent.
II. A thing is called finite after its kind, when it can be limited
by another thing of the same nature; for instance, a body is
called finite because we always conceive another greater
body. So, also, a thought is limited by another thought, but a
body is not limited by thought, nor a thought by body.
DEFINITIONS:
III. By substance, I mean that which is in itself, and is
conceived through itself: in other words, that of which a
conception can be formed independently of any other
conception.
IV. By attribute, I mean that which the intellect perceives as
constituting the essence of substance.
DEFINITIONS:
V. By mode, I mean the modifications[1] of substance, or that

which exists in, and is conceived through, something other
than itself.
VI. By God, I mean a being absolutely infinite—that is, a
substance consisting in infinite attributes, of which each
expresses eternal and infinite essentiality.
DEFINITIONS:
V. By mode, I mean the modifications[1] of substance, or that

which exists in, and is conceived through, something other
than itself.
VI. By God, I mean a being absolutely infinite—that is, a
substance consisting in infinite attributes, of which each
expresses eternal and infinite essentiality.
DEFINITIONS:
VII. That thing is called free, which exists solely by the necessity
of its own nature, and of which the action is determined by
itself alone. On the other hand, that thing is necessary, or rather
constrained, which is determined by something external to itself
to a fixed and definite method of existence or action.
DEFINITIONS:
VIII. By eternity, I mean existence itself, in so far as it is

conceived necessarily to follow solely from the definition of that
which is eternal.
AXIOMS:
I. Everything which exists, exists either in itself or in something

else.
II. That which cannot be conceived through anything else must
be conceived through itself.
III. From a given definite cause an effect necessarily follows; and,

on the other hand, if no definite cause be granted, it is
impossible that an effect can follow.
AXIOMS:
IV. The knowledge of an effect depends on and involves the

knowledge of a cause.
V. Things which have nothing in common cannot be understood,

the one by means of the other; the conception of one does not
involve the conception of the other.
AXIOMS:
VI. A true idea must correspond with its ideate or object.
VII. If a thing can be conceived as non—existing, its essence

does not involve existence.
PROPOSITION:
XI: "God, or substance consisting of infinite attributes, each which

expresses eternal and infinite sub-stance, necessarily exists."
XIV: "There can be, or be conceived, no other substance but God."

Philosophy
SPINOZA’s metaphysics
“only one substance exists, and that

substance is God. Everything that
exists is in some sense God or in
God, part of God.”
Philosophy
SUBSTANCE and ATTRIBUTES
For Aristotle, Substances are those realities

that can be conceived as existing
independently, on their own, so to speak.
Philosophy
SUBSTANCE and ATTRIBUTES
Attributes, cannot be conceived as existing in
isolation. Such properties as "being intelligent" or
"being snub-nosed" cannot exist as free-floating
entities. They must be properties of something,
and that something must be a substance.
Philosophy
SPINOZA’S DEFINITION OF SUBSTANCE
III. By substance, I mean that which is in itself,

and is conceived through itself: in other words, that
of which a conception can be formed
independently of any other conception.
Philosophy
IMPLICATION OF SPINOZA’S DEFINITION OF
SUBSTANCE
• there are no finite, created substances
• God and only God exists

Philosophy
• affirms the existence of God, and he

certainly affirms that God is not a being
distinct from the material world.
Philosophy
• affirms the existence of God, and he

certainly affirms that God is not a being
distinct from the material world.
Philosophy
SPINOZA’s Proof of the
Existence of God
1. He argues that when two substances have nothing in

common, one cannot be the cause of the other, for
causality requires an intelligible connection between
cause and effect, but no connection between two things
that have nothing in common can be conceived.
Philosophy
Existence of God
2. He also argues that there cannot be two substances

with the same nature or attribute, so if there were two
substances they would have nothing in common. It
follows from these two claims that no substance can be
caused to exist by another.
Philosophy
Existence of God
3. He then argues for the existence of God as an

absolutely infinite substance, God's essence involves
existence since God's essence includes all perfections and
existence is a perfection.
Philosophy
Existence of God
4. From all of this, it follows that no other substance than

God. Any other substance would have to be distinguished
in some way from God, but since God already has all
infinite attributes, there is no attribute any other
substance could have that would differentiate it from God
Philosophy
Infinite Attributes of God
On the one hand, God has an infinite number of

attributes. On the other hand, each of those attributes is
possessed by God in an infinite manner.
Philosophy
Spinoza says that we only are

aware of two: thought and
extension
Philosophy
Spinoza says that we only are

aware of two: thought and
extension
Philosophy
Thought/Mind Extension
we picture
we conceive
God as
God as God
nature
Philosophy
The God of Spinoza
God is free in the sense that he is unconstrained by
any. thing outside of himself. Nothing can prevent
God from acting as he must, and so he is perfectly
free in the sense that he is always able to be himself
and is completely independent
Philosophy
The God of Spinoza
God is not a being who is distinct from nature, it is also a

mistake to think of God as an "efficient cause" that
brings nature into being. God is the cause of everything
that happens, but God's causality is an "immanent"
causality, not the product of a being who is distinct from
the world.
Philosophy
The God of Spinoza
God is not a being who is distinct from nature, it is also a

mistake to think of God as an "efficient cause" that
brings nature into being. God is the cause of everything
that happens, but God's causality is an "immanent"
causality, not the product of a being who is distinct from
the world.
Philosophy
The God of Spinoza
Everything that happens does so because of God, but

God is not a person distinct from the world, but more like
an immanent principle that pervades the world.
Philosophy
The Natural world of
Spinoza
Nature is both natura naturans and

also natura naturata.
Philosophy
Spinoza
Nature as natura naturans

we think of nature as active and
productive; it is nature "doing its thing.
Philosophy
Spinoza
Nature is both natura naturans and

also natura naturata.
Philosophy
Spinoza
Nature as natura naturata.
we think of nature as the result or

product of the process.
Philosophy
Spinoza
Finite objects
"modes" of God, the particular
ways in which God manifests
himself.
Philosophy
Spinoza
Finite objects
Finite Modes of God Infinite Modes of God
Philosophy
Spinoza
Infinite Modes of God
things like the principles of mathematics and the

laws of physics. They exist always and are an
immediate, direct expression of God's nature.
Philosophy
Spinoza
Finite Modes of God
are also expressions of God's nature, but they are
"modifications" of the divine attributes, and as such
they have a different status. Finite modes come and go
and thus have a kind of contingency. (Humans)
Philosophy
Spinoza
With the exception of God, however, there is
no freedom in Spinoza’s universe. Everything
is ultimately determined by God's nature,
directly or indirectly, and everything that
happens is necessary.
Philosophy
Spinoza
Humans believe in free will only because of our
ignorance of the true causes of what we do. It is
ultimately a world in which regret makes no sense.
Everything that happens must happen, therefore a
wise person should accept events without regret.
Philosophy
Spinoza’s ethics
If all named behavior is caused by past causes,

which necessarily produce their effects, then
regrets and desires that things could have been
different irrational.
Philosophy
Spinoza’s ethics
We humans think that some states of affairs are good and
some are bad. However, we make such judgments simply
on the basis of what fulfills or frustrates our desires or
appetites, whatever they may be. These judgments on our
part do not reflect some objective or absolute truth but
simply a relation to our desires and appetites.
Philosophy
Spinoza’s ethics
The wise person seeks to free himself or herself from

such emotions as regret by understanding the order
of nature.
Philosophy
Spinoza’s ethics
Unhappiness stems from our partial perspective on

reality. We are unduly attached to some particular
outcome or thing, and feel sadness and even despair
when we lose it, although the truth is that such
losses are outside our control.
Philosophy
Spinoza’s ethics
we should strive to see the world as God sees it:

sub specie aeternitatis (under the aspect of
eternity).
Philosophy
Spinoza’s ethics
To live in this way constitutes "the intellectual love

of God. Love for God is not love for a person who
might return this love. It is rather more like the awe
and wonder one might feel for a beautiful
mathematical proof or some deep law of physics.
Philosophy
Spinoza’s ethics
To live in this way constitutes "the intellectual love

of God. Love for God is not love for a person who
might return this love. It is rather more like the awe
and wonder one might feel for a beautiful
mathematical proof or some deep law of physics.
Philosophy
Continental Rationalism: Spinoza and Leibniz

Philosophy
Gottfried Wilhelm
Leibniz
July 1, 1646
Leipzig, Germany
November 14, 1716.
Philosophy
Union of European
nations
a plan to reconcile
Protestants and
Catholics
Philosophy
Essays in Theodicy
Discourse on
Metaphysics
New System of Nature and
the Interaction of Substances
Philosophy
Monads, Space and Time
He proposed that the basic substances were monads,

which can be described as something like "spiritual
atoms Monads have a location or position (relative to
other monads), but they are not extended.
Philosophy
Space and time as experienced are part of the
phenomenal world. They are not metaphysically basic,
but they are grounded in and explained by what is
metaphysically basic: the monads. Space and Time for
Leibniz can be described as "well grounded
illusions."
Philosophy
all of reality is composed of monads, from bare

material objects to complicated plants and animals.
Human persons are also monads, ones that image
God, who is the supreme Monad and the source of all
monads.
Philosophy
God and Possible worlds
Leibniz believes that God's existence can be proved in

a number of ways, but Leibniz is perhaps best known
for his version of the cosmological argument. He
defends as a fundamental principle what he calls "the
principle of sufficient reason
Philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy
The principle of sufficient reason requires that there
be a reason why the universe exists, and the only
adequate reason would be a necessary being, and
Leibniz holds that a necessary being who is
responsible for the existence of everything contingent
would be God.
Philosophy
Does God have a sufficient reason to create the

world that he does?
Philosophy
A possible world is simply a maximally large set of events that
God could actualize. Not even God can do what is logically
impossible, so God could not create a world in which there were
only blue objects and in which there also were green objects. But
if we imagine a maximally large set of events that logically can
be instantiated together we have a possible world. The actual
world is a possible world, but there are many others.
Philosophy
God, being omniscient and omnipotent, is

aware of all the possible worlds and has the
power to actualize any of them.
Philosophy
Why should he actualize one rather than some

other?
Philosophy
Leibniz thinks the obvious answer is that God

would actualize one world rather than another
because it is better. The actual world must then be
the best of all possible worlds.
Philosophy
Human Freedom
Humans are sometimes free,

despite the fact that their
programs are set
Philosophy
Human Freedom
Humans are sometimes free,

despite the fact that their
programs are set
Philosophy
Human Freedom
absolute necessity and

hypothetical necessity
Philosophy
Human Freedom
absolute necessity
What absolutely necessary cannot be different,
for if anything else happened it would imply a
contradiction.
Philosophy
Human Freedom
hypothetically necessary
What is hypothetically necessary is nor necessary in
itself, but only necessary given some condition.
Leibniz equates such hypothetical necessities with
what is contingent.
Philosophy
Human Freedom
Leibniz's compatibilism depends on the intuition that

genuine freedom is simply a matter of being determined
by one's on self; freedom is freedom from external
control. In this sense, ever monad, including humans,
may be said to have the kind of freedom
Philosophy
Leibniz Epistemology
He claims that a true proposition is simply one in

which the predicate is contained in the subject.
This makes good sense for what are often called
"analytic" truths that are made true by the
meaning of the terms
Philosophy
Leibniz Epistemology
Leibniz believes that many of the most important

truths can be known through reason alone,
particularly by relying on such self-evident
principles as the principle of noncontradiction,
the principle of sufficient reason, and the
principle of the identity of indiscernible,

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III.

The Rise of Modern

Continental Rationalism: Spinoza and Leibniz

He sees mathematics as an ideal form of

“begins with a series of

Part one of the Ethics

I. By that which is self—caused, I mean that of which the

V. By mode, I mean the modifications[1] of substance, or that

V. By mode, I mean the modifications[1] of substance, or that

VIII. By eternity, I mean existence itself, in so far as it is

I. Everything which exists, exists either in itself or in something

III. From a given definite cause an effect necessarily follows; and,

IV. The knowledge of an effect depends on and involves the

V. Things which have nothing in common cannot be understood,

VI. A true idea must correspond with its ideate or object.

VII. If a thing can be conceived as non—existing, its essence

XI: "God, or substance consisting of infinite attributes, each which

XIV: "There can be, or be conceived, no other substance but God."

“only one substance exists, and that

For Aristotle, Substances are those realities

III. By substance, I mean that which is in itself,

• there are no finite, created substances

• God and only God exists

• affirms the existence of God, and he

• affirms the existence of God, and he

1. He argues that when two substances have nothing in

2. He also argues that there cannot be two substances

3. He then argues for the existence of God as an

4. From all of this, it follows that no other substance than

On the one hand, God has an infinite number of

Spinoza says that we only are

Spinoza says that we only are

God is not a being who is distinct from nature, it is also a

God is not a being who is distinct from nature, it is also a

Everything that happens does so because of God, but

Nature is both natura naturans and

Nature as natura naturans

Nature is both natura naturans and

Nature as natura naturata.

we think of nature as the result or

things like the principles of mathematics and the

If all named behavior is caused by past causes,

The wise person seeks to free himself or herself from

Unhappiness stems from our partial perspective on

we should strive to see the world as God sees it:

To live in this way constitutes "the intellectual love

To live in this way constitutes "the intellectual love

Continental Rationalism: Spinoza and Leibniz

He proposed that the basic substances were monads,

all of reality is composed of monads, from bare

Leibniz believes that God's existence can be proved in

Leibniz believes that God's existence can be proved in

Leibniz believes that God's existence can be proved in

Does God have a sufficient reason to create the

God, being omniscient and omnipotent, is

Why should he actualize one rather than some

Leibniz thinks the obvious answer is that God

Humans are sometimes free,

Humans are sometimes free,

absolute necessity and