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114. - Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646–1716)

from L

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2025

By
Ursula Goldenbaum
Edited by
Karolina Hübner  and
Justin Steinberg
Karolina Hübner
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Justin Steinberg
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
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Summary

Leibniz’s relation to Spinoza’s thinking has long been discussed. Some saw him as a Spinozist while most scholars wanted him to be untouched by Spinoza’s dangerous ideas. In the mid nineteenth century, the zeal of Leibniz scholars to keep the German and Christian philosopher apart from Spinoza even generated the still widespread continuity thesis: since Leibniz’s mature philosophy had already been contained as “seeds” in his earliest philosophical drafts before he ever read Spinoza, the Dutch-Jewish philosopher could not have made any impact on him (Trendelenburg 1847, 385–86; Foucher de Careil 1854, 6; Kabitz 1909, 3, 127). The discovery of Leibniz’s marginalia in the TTP in 1994 eventually proved that Leibniz studied this book already in October 1670, that is, well before finishing his first metaphysical works (Goldenbaum 1999, 2007).

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Chapter
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The Cambridge Spinoza Lexicon , pp. 326 - 328
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

Recommended Reading

Friedmann, G. (1945). Leibniz et Spinoza. Gallimard.Google Scholar
Goldenbaum, U. (1999). Die ‘Commentatiuncula de judice’ als Leibnizens erste philosophische Auseinandersetzung mit Spinoza nebst der Mitteilung über ein neuaufgefundenes Leibnizstück. Studia Leibnitiana, Special Issue, 29, 61–127.Google Scholar
Goldenbaum, U. (2002). Spinoza’s parrot, Socinian syllogisms, and Leibniz’s metaphysics: Leibniz’s three strategies of defending Christian mysteries. American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, Special Issue, 76(4), 551–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldenbaum, U. (2007). Why shouldn’t Leibniz have studied Spinoza? The rise of the claim of continuity in Leibniz’ philosophy out of the ideological rejection of Spinoza’s impact on Leibniz. Leibniz Review, 17, 107–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kulstad, M. (1997). Roads not taken: Radical suggestions of Leibniz’s De summa rerum. Synthesis Philosophica, Special Issue, 12(2), 403–13.Google Scholar
Kulstad, M. (1999). Leibniz, Spinoza, and Tschirnhaus: Multiple worlds, possible worlds. In Brown, S. C. (ed.), The Young Leibniz and His Philosophy (1646–76) (pp. 245–62). Kluwer.Google Scholar
Kulstad, M. (2002). Exploring middle ground on the question, was Leibniz’s conception of God ever Spinozistic? American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, 76(4), 671–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lærke, M. (2008). Leibniz Lecteur de Spinoza: La genèse d’une opposition complexe. Honoré Champion.Google Scholar
Morfino, V. (1994). Spinoza contra Leibniz: Documenti di uno scontro intelettuale. Unicopli.Google Scholar
Newlands, S. (2010). The harmony of Spinoza and Leibniz. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 81(1), 64–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stein, L. (1890). Leibniz und Spinoza: Ein Beitrag zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Leibnizschen Philosophie. Reimer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walther, M. (1986). Bibliographie zu Leibniz und Spinoza. In Spinoza, , Briefwechsel (pp. 426–34). Meiner.Google Scholar

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