The Rationalists: Spinoza and Leibniz
PHIL10086
2020-21
Course Organiser Pauline Phemister
Dugald Stewart Building, room 6.04
Tel: 0131 651 3747
Email: [email protected]
Course Secretary Anne-Marie Cowe
PPLS Undergraduate Teaching Office
Dugald Stewart Building, room G.06
Tel: 0131 650 3961
Email: [email protected]
Times and Locations
Semester 1
Information about class timing and format will be on the LEARN page for the course.
Assessment
Mid-term essay (30%) to be submitted by 12 noon on Thursday 22nd
October. Word limit: 1,500 words
Final essay (70%) to be submitted by 12 noon on Thursday 10th
December. Word limit: 3,000 words
Participation (5%) judged by seminar attendance and Learn Discussion
Board participation
Course Aims and Objectives
The course will introduce students to the philosophical systems of the Dutch
philosopher, Benedict de Spinoza and the German thinker, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.
Responding critically to, but still working within the framework of, Cartesian dualism,
Spinoza and Leibniz respectively transformed the Cartesian philosophy in two radically
different directions, resulting in (i) Spinoza’s absolute monism and, in critical response
also to Spinoza, (ii) the dynamic, pluralist philosophical system of Leibniz. In this
course, we will compare and assess the philosophical arguments that led each
philosopher to hold similar but also radically divergent views on the nature of reality,
mind and body, God, and the ethical life.
Lecture/Seminar Content: Provisional Outline
Week 1: Introduction and Substance (Spinoza)
Essential Reading:
Spinoza, Ethics 1, Definitions 1-8, Axioms 1-7, Ethics 2, Postulates 1-4
(located immediately before Ethics 2, Proposition 14)
Spinoza, Ethics 1, Proposition 5 and Demonstration
Melamed, Yitzak (2017). 'The Building Blocks of Spinoza's Metaphysics:
Substance, Attributes, and Modes'. In Michael Della Rocca, ed., The Oxford
Handbook of Spinoza (OUP), pp. 84-114
Recommended further reading:
John Cottingham, The Rationalists, chapter 3;
Week 2: Proofs of God’s existence (Spinoza)
Essential reading:
Spinoza, Ethics 1, proposition 11 and demonstrations
Phemister, Pauline (2006). The Rationalists: Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz
(Routledge), chapter 4, pp. 80-91
Lin, Martin ‘Spinoza’s Arguments for the Existence of God’, Philosophy and
Phenomenological Research, 75:2 (2007), 269-297
Website
Mapping Spinoza’s Ethics website: http://ethica.bc.edu/#/
Week 3: Spinoza’s Monism and Determinism (Spinoza)
Essential reading:
Spinoza, Ethics 1, proposition 14 demonstration and all the propositions and
their demonstrations that are included in the proof.
Spinoza, Ethics I, Proposition 5 and demonstration (the no-shared attribute
thesis)
Don Garrett, ‘Ethics IP5: Shared Attributes and the Basis of Spinoza’s
Monism’, in J. A. Cover and Mark Kulstad, eds. Central Themes in Early
Modern Philosophy, pp.69-108
Phemister, The Rationalists: Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz, chapter 4, pp.
91-99
Spinoza, Ethics I, propositions 26-33, including demonstrations of the
component propositions.
Website
Mapping Spinoza’s Ethics website: http://ethica.bc.edu/#/
Recommended further reading:
Koistinen, Olli (2003). ‘Spinoza’s Proof of Necessitarianism’, Philosophy and
Phenomenological Research, 67(2), 283-310
http://ethica.bc.edu/#/http://ethica.bc.edu/#/
Lecture 4: Mind and Body (Spinoza)
Essential reading:
Spinoza, Ethics 2, up to and including Ethics 2, proposition 47
Della Rocca, Michael (2008). Spinoza (Routledge), chapter 3
Steinberg, Diane (2009). ‘Knowledge in Spinoza’s Ethics’. In Olli Koistinen,
ed. The Cambridge Companion to Spinoza’s ‘Ethics’ (CUP), chapter 7
Recommended further reading:
Wilson, Margaret (2006). ‘Spinoza’s Theory of Knowledge’. In Don Garrett,
ed., The Cambridge Companion to Spinoza (CUP), chapter 3
Website
Mapping Spinoza’s Ethics website: http://ethica.bc.edu/#/
Lecture 5: Freedom: the intellectual love of God (Spinoza)
Essential reading:
Spinoza, Ethics 3, proposition 35 and Scholium, Ethics 4, proposition 46, plus
all other propositions, corollaries and scholia, excluding their demonstrations,
in Ethics 3 and 4.
Spinoza, Ethics 5, paying particular attention to Ethics 5, proposition 32 and
all propositions that discuss eternity or the eternal part of the mind.
Steven Nadler (2018). ‘The Intellectual Love of God’. In The Oxford
Handbook of Spinoza. Ed. by M. Della Rocca, (OUP), pp. 295-313
Nadler, Steven (2006). Spinoza’s Ethics: An Introduction (CUP), chapter 9
Website
Mapping Spinoza’s Ethics website: http://ethica.bc.edu/#/
Recommended further reading
Susan James, ‘Power and Difference: Spinoza’s Conception of Freedom’,
Journal of Political Philosophy, 4:3 (1996), 207-228
:
Lecture 6: Substances (Leibniz)
Essential reading:
Leibniz, Monadology, §§ 1-30; 63-70
Leibniz, Meditations on Knowledge, Truth, and Ideas
Leibniz, Discourse on Metaphysics, §§ 8-15;
Leibniz, Correspondence with de Volder, Leibniz to de Volder 20 June 1703
Leibniz, 'On the Correction of Metaphysics and the Concept of Substance', Acta
Eruditorum, March 1694. In Loemker, L, Philosophical Papers and Letters,
432-434.
http://ethica.bc.edu/#/http://ethica.bc.edu/#/
Phemister, Pauline (2001). ‘Corporeal Substances and the Discourse on
Metaphysics’, Studia Leibnitiana, 33(1), 68-85
Wilson, Catherine (1989). Leibniz’s Metaphysics: a comparative and
historical study, chapter 3
Essential Video
Alonzi, Adam, The Life of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jib3WN5Wpps
Recommended further reading:
Anthony Savile, Routledge Guidebook to Leibniz and the ‘Monadology’,
chapters 3 and 4
Lecture 7: Perfection and God (Leibniz)
Essential reading:
Leibniz, Monadology, §§ 31-59 [ 31-39 PSR] [40-52 God] [53-59 BPW]
Leibniz, ‘Whether the world increases in perfection (1694-1696?)’. In Lloyd
Strickland, ed., The Shorter Leibniz Texts: A Collection of New Translations
(Continuum, 2006), 196-197.
Look, Brandon C. (2011) ‘Grounding the Principle of Sufficient Reason: Leibnizian Rationalism and the Humean Challenge’. In Fraenkel, C., Perinetti, D., & Smith, J.E.H., eds. The Rationalists: Between Tradition and Innovation (Springer) Blumenfeld , David (1994). ‘Perfection and Happiness in the Best Possible World’. In Nicholas Jolley, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Leibniz (Cambridge, CUP), 382-410
Recommended further reading:
Voltaire, Candide
Rodriguez-Peyrera, Gonzalo (2018). ‘The Principles of Contradiction, Sufficient
Reason, and Identity of Indiscernibles’. In Antognazza, Rosa, ed., The Oxford
Handbook of Leibniz
Phemister, Pauline and Lloyd Strickland (2015). ‘Leibniz’s Monadological
Positive Aesthetics’, British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 23(6), 1214-
1234
Strickland, Lloyd (2006). ‘Leibniz on Whether the World Increases in
Perfection’, British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 14(1), 51-68.
Look, Brandon C. (2018). ‘Arguments for the Existence of God’. In Antognazza,
Rosa, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Leibniz
Lecture 8: Bodies (Leibniz)
Essential reading:
Leibniz, Monadology, §§ 60-77;
Leibniz, On Body and Force, Against the Cartesians
Leibniz, From the letters to Johann Bernoulli
Leibniz, Notes on Some Comments by Michel Angelo Fardella
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jib3WN5Wpps
Phemister, Pauline (2005). Leibniz and the Natural World (Springer), chapter 4.
Phemister, Pauline (2015). ‘The Souls of Seeds’. In Adrian Nita (ed.), Leibniz’s
Metaphysics and Adoption of Substantial Forms, Dordrecht: Springer, 125 –
141.
Essential Podcast
Were my atoms once your atoms? https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cszv5r
Recommended further reading:
Nachtomy, Ohad (2011). ‘Leibniz on Artificial and Natural Machines; Or,
What it Means to Remain a Machine to the Least of Its Parts’, in J. E. H.
Smith and O. Nachtomy, eds. Machines of Nature and Corporeal Substances
in Leibniz chapter 4
Phemister, Pauline (2011). ‘Monads and Machines’, in J. E. H. Smith and
Ohad Nachtomy, eds. Machines of Nature and Corporeal Substances in
Leibniz, chapter 3
Lecture 9: Pre-established harmony (Leibniz)
Essential Reading:
Leibniz, A Specimen of Dynamics, part 2
Leibniz, A Brief Demonstration of a Notable Error of Descartes and others
concerning a natural law. In Loemker, L (1959), G.W. Leibniz: Philosophical
Papers and Letters (Reidel), 296-298
Leibniz, Monadology, §§ 78-90
Leibniz, Correspondence with Arnauld, Leibniz to Arnauld, 9 October 1687
Leibniz, Postscript of a letter to Basnage de Beauval (1696)
Phemister, Pauline (2011). ‘Are Mind-Body Relations Natural and Intelligible?
Some Early Modern Perspectives’, in Keith Allen and Tom Stoneham, eds.,
Causation and Modern Philosophy (2011, London: Routledge)
Phemister, Pauline (2003). ‘Exploring Leibniz’s Kingdoms: A Philosophical
Analysis of Nature and Grace’, Ecothology, 7(2), 126-145
Recommended further reading:
Leibniz, New System of the Nature and Communication of Substances, and of the
union of the Soul and Body
Phemister, Pauline (2005). Leibniz and the Natural World: activity, passivity
and corporeal substances in Leibniz’s philosophy, chapter 9;
Lecture 10 Rational Freedom and Contingency
Essential reading:
Leibniz, Discourse on Metaphysics, section 13
Leibniz, Monadology, sections 60-62
Leibniz, On Freedom and Possibility;
Leibniz, Remarks on Arnauld’s Letter about My Proposition That the Individual
Notion of Each Person Includes Once and for all Everything That Will Ever
Happen to Him
Leibniz, On Freedom
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cszv5r
Leibniz, Letter to Coste, On Human Freedom (19 December 1707)
Leibniz, Meditations on Knowledge, Truth, and Ideas
Spinoza, Ethics 1, propositions 16-33, Ethics 2, proposition 7
Phemister, Pauline (1991). ‘Leibniz, Freedom of Will and Rationality’, Studia
Leibnitiana, 23, 25-38
Lois Frankel, Lois (1984). ‘On Being Able to do Otherwise: Leibniz on
Freedom and Contingency’ Studia Leibnitiana, 16 (1984), 45-59
Phemister, Pauline (2007). ‘God’s Freedom to Create’, Revue Roumaine de
Philosophie, 51, 3-19
Recommended further reading:
Phemister, Pauline (2005). ‘The minute and insensible in Leibniz’s moral theory in the Nouveaux Essais ‘. Pre-publication English version of Phemister, P. (2006). ‘Le très petit et l’imperceptible dans la théorie morale de Leibniz d’après les Nouveaux Essais’ morals’. In Francois Duchesneau & Jérémie Griard, eds., Leibniz selon les Nouveaux essais sur l’entendement (Montreal : Bellarmin & Paris: J. Vrin), pp. 229-248
Adams, Robert (1993). Leibniz: Determinist, Theist, Idealist (OUP), chapter 1
Lecture 11: Overview and concluding debate
Essential Reading
Leibniz, Comments on Spinoza’s Philosophy (1707?)
Look, Brandon C., ‘Perfection Power and the Passions in Spinoza and Leibniz’.
Self-published online: https://www.uky.edu/~look/essays/PPP.pdf
Hicks, G. Dawes (1917-18). ‘The “Modes” of Spinoza and the “Monads” of
Leibniz’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 18, 329-362
Laerke, Mogens (2017). ‘Leibniz’s Encounter with Spinoza’s Monism, October
1675 to February 1678’. In Della Rocca, Michael, ed., The Oxford Handbook of
Spinoza
Further recommended reading:
Newlands, Sam (2010). ‘The Harmony of Spinoza and Leibniz’, Philosophy and
Phenomenological Research 81(1), 64-104
------
General Readings and other materials
Required media output
Podcast
Were my atoms once your atoms? https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cszv5r
Website
https://www.uky.edu/~look/essays/PPP.pdfhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cszv5r
Mapping Spinoza’s Ethics website: http://ethica.bc.edu/#/
Video
Alonzi, Adam, The Life of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jib3WN5Wpps
Required (Core Texts: Essential)
Spinoza, The Ethics. In Spinoza, The Collected Works of Spinoza, tr. and ed. by E. M.
Curley, vol. 1 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988). Available online via
University Library Databases, ‘Past Masters’ (‘Continental Rationalists’).
Leibniz, The Principles of Philosophy, or Monadology; Discourse on Metaphysics
and Correspondence with Arnauld; New System of the nature and communication
of Substances; Principles of Nature and of Grace, and various other short pieces. In G. W. Leibniz, Philosophical Essays, tr. and ed. by D. Garber and R. Ariew
(Indianapolis: Hackett, 1989). Available online via University Library Databases,
‘Past Masters’ (‘Continental Rationalists’).
Recommended (Secondary Literature)
Books
–– on Spinoza
Della Rocca, Michael, ed. (2017). The Oxford Handbook of Spinoza (Oxford: Oxford
University Press)
Della Rocca, Michael (2008). Spinoza (Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge)
Garrett, Don (1996). Cambridge Companion to Spinoza (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press)
Hampshire, Stuart (2005). Spinoza and Spinozism (Oxford: Clarendon Press)
Huenemann, Charlie, ed. (2008). Interpreting Spinoza: Critical Essays (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press)
Kashap, S. Paul, ed. (1972). Studies in Spinoza: Critical and Interpretive Essays
(Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press)
Koistinen, Olli, ed. (2010). Cambridge Companion to Spinoza’s ‘Ethics’ (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press)
Koistinen, Olli and John Biro, eds. (2002). Spinoza: Metaphysical Themes (Oxford:
Oxford University Press)
Lloyd, Genevieve (1996). Spinoza and the ‘Ethics’ (London: Routledge).
Lord, Beth (2010). Spinoza’s ‘Ethics’: an Edinburgh Philosophical Guide
(Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press)
Nadler, Steven (2006). Spinoza’s ‘Ethics’: An Introduction (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press)
(and Leibniz) Nadler, Steven (2010): The Best of all Possible Worlds: A Story of
Philosophers, God, and Evil in the Age of Reason (Princeton: Princeton University
Press)
Popkin, Richard H. (2004). Spinoza (Oxford: OneWorld Publications)
–– on Leibniz
Antognazza, Maria Rosa, ed. (2018). The Oxford Handbook of Leibniz (Oxford: Oxford
University Press)
http://ethica.bc.edu/#/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jib3WN5Wpps
Arthur, Richard (2014). Leibniz (Oxford: Polity)
Broad, Charles Dunbar (1979 [1975]). Leibniz: an introduction. Ed. by Casimir Levy.
Corrected reprint. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
Jolley, Nicholas (1994). Cambridge Companion to Leibniz (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press)
Jorgensen, Larry M. and Samuel Newlands, eds. (2014). New Essays on Leibniz’s
‘Theodicy’ (Oxford: Oxford University Press)
Look, Brandon (2011). Continuum Companion to Leibniz (London: Continuum)
Rutherford, Don (1995). Leibniz and the Rational Order of Nature (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press)
Rutherford, Don and J. A. Cover, eds. (2005). Leibniz: Nature and Freedom (Oxford:
Oxford University Press)
Savile, Anthony (2000). Routledge Philosophy GuideBook to Leibniz and the
‘Monadology’ (London: Routledge)
Smith, J. E. H. and Nachtomy, O. (2011). Machines of Nature and Corporeal
Substances in Leibniz (Dordrecht: Springer)
Wilson, Catherine (1989). Leibniz’s Metaphysics: a critical and comparative study
(Manchester: Manchester University Press)
Further reading (more advanced)
Books
–– on Spinoza
Kisner, Matthew (2011). Spinoza on Human Freedom: Reason, Autonomy and the
Good Life (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
Lin, Martin (2019). Being and Reason: An Essay on Spinoza’s Metaphysics (Oxford:
Oxford University Press)
Marshall, Eugene (2013). The Spiritual Automaton: Spinoza’s Science of the Mind
(Oxford: Oxford University Press)
Melamed, Yitzak (2013). Spinoza’s Metaphysics: substance and thought (Oxford:
Oxford University Press)
Viljanen, Valtteri (2011). Spinoza’s Geometry of Power (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press)
–– on Leibniz
Adams, Robert Merrihew (1994). Leibniz: Determinist, Theist, Idealist (Oxford:
Oxford University Press)
Garber, Daniel (2009). Leibniz: Body, Substance, Monad (Oxford: Oxford University
Press)
Nachtomy, Ohad (2007). Possibility, Agency, and Individuality in Leibniz’s
Metaphysics (Dordrecht: Springer)
Nachtomy, Ohad (2019). Living Mirrors, Infinity, Unity, and Life in Leibniz’s
Philosophy (Oxford: OUP)
Phemister, Pauline (2005). Leibniz and the Natural World: activity, passivity and
corporeal substances in Leibniz’s philosophy (Dordrecht: Springer).
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