Part 11 (2/2)
Leibniz's latter-day followers call the extramodern mystery at the core of existence any number of names: Being, Becoming, Life, the Absolute, the Will, nonlinear rationality, and more. But it is no different in principle from what Leibniz calls the principle of activity, the immortal soul, and, finally, the monad. The modern Leibnizians produce an equally diverse set of labels for that to which they are opposed: mechanism, instrumental reason, the Enlightenment, western metaphysics, phallogocentrism, and so on. But their nemeses are in the end the same thing that Leibniz calls materialism, the philosophy of the moderns, ”the opinions of certain recent innovators,” or, in moments of clarity, Spinozism.
LIKE ALL GOOD philosophers, Leibniz and Spinoza must eventually come to a rest somewhere outside of history. The two men who met in 1676 in fact represent a pair of radically different philosophical personality types that have always been part of the human experience. Spinoza speaks for those who believe that happiness and virtue are possible with nothing more than what we have in our hands. Leibniz stands for those convinced that happiness and virtue depend on something that lies beyond. Spinoza counsels calm attention to our own deepest good. Leibniz expresses that irrepressible longing to see our good works reflected back to us in the praise of others. Spinoza affirms the totality of things such as it is. Leibniz is that part of us that ceaselessly strives to make us something more than what we are. Without doubt, there is a little piece of each in everybody; equally certain is the fact that, at times, a choice must be made. philosophers, Leibniz and Spinoza must eventually come to a rest somewhere outside of history. The two men who met in 1676 in fact represent a pair of radically different philosophical personality types that have always been part of the human experience. Spinoza speaks for those who believe that happiness and virtue are possible with nothing more than what we have in our hands. Leibniz stands for those convinced that happiness and virtue depend on something that lies beyond. Spinoza counsels calm attention to our own deepest good. Leibniz expresses that irrepressible longing to see our good works reflected back to us in the praise of others. Spinoza affirms the totality of things such as it is. Leibniz is that part of us that ceaselessly strives to make us something more than what we are. Without doubt, there is a little piece of each in everybody; equally certain is the fact that, at times, a choice must be made.
Leibniz was a man whose failings were writ as large as his outsized virtues. Yet it was his greed, his vanity, and above all, his insatiable, all too human neediness that made his work so emblematic for the species. With the promise that the cruel surface of experience conceals a most pleasing and beautiful truth, a world in which everything happens for a reason and all is for the best, the glamorous courtier of Hanover made himself into the philosopher of the common man. If Spinoza was the first great thinker of the modern era, then perhaps Leibniz should count as its first human being.
Spinoza, on the other hand, was marked from the start as a rara avis rara avis. Given his eerie self-sufficiency, his inhuman virtue, and his contempt for the mult.i.tudes, it could not have been otherwise. Yet the message of his philosophy is not that we know all that there is to know; but rather that there is nothing that cannot be known. Spinoza's teaching is that there is no unfathomable mystery in the world; no other-world accessible only through revelation or epiphany; no hidden power capable of judging or affirming us; no secret truth about everything. There is instead only the slow and steady acc.u.mulation of many small truths; and the most important of these is that we need expect nothing more in order to find happiness in this world. His is a philosophy for philosophers, who are as uncommon now as they have always been.
Notes.
Full biographical information for most sources cited in these notes can be found in the following section. For lists of abbreviations used for primary texts, see pages 33233. Thus, for example, in the first note below the source is Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: Samtliche Schriften und Briefe Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: Samtliche Schriften und Briefe (”A”), series II, volume 1, page 535. (”A”), series II, volume 1, page 535.
1. The Hague, November 1676 ”the most impious...”: Antoine Arnauld, cited by Leibniz in A II.i.535.
”that insane and evil man...”: Bishop Pierre-Daniel Huet, cited in Friedmann, p. 204.
”horrible” and ”terrifying”: A II.i.172.
”intolerably impudent”: To Thomasius, A II.i.66.
”I deplore that a man...”: A I.i.148.
”When one...compares one's own small talents...”: Diderot, Encyclopedie Encyclopedie.
”It is so rare for an intellectual...”: Orleans, p. 282.
His limbs, it was said: For these and other colorful descriptions of Leibniz in person, see Guhrauer, especially the final chapter.
”He is a man who, despite...”: Klopp ii.125; Muller, pp. 27ff.
13 ”I love this man...”: Sophia Charlotte, cited in Guhrauer ii.248.
”To be a follower of Spinoza...”: Hegel, iii.257.
he famously replied: ”I believe in Spinoza's G.o.d”: Clark, pp. 413ff.
”well-formed body”: Freudenthal, p. 3.
”beautiful face”: Freudenthal, p. 59.
”pleasing physiognomy”: Freudenthal, p. 237; see also Nadler (1999), p. 155.
”so that one might easily know...”: Freudenthal, p. 59.
”a few hours”: To Ernst von Hessen-Rheinfels, A II.i.535.
”anecdotes concerning the affairs of those times”: Theodicy Theodicy, sec. 376.
”waste time in refuting”: Theodicy Theodicy, sec. 173.
”many times and at great length”: To Gallois, A II.i.379.
”You know that I once went a little too far...”: A VI.vi.73.
2. Bento ”the kind of monster...”: Limborch, cited in Meinsma (1909) p. 532.
For the history of Jews in Spain and Portugal, see Nadler (2003) and Raphael.
”in a free and unimpeded way”: See Nadler (1999) and (2003) on the Portuguese Inquisition.
Isaac's in-laws: For Spinoza family history, see especially Gullan-Whur.
”the most beautiful city in Europe”: Freudenthal, p. 3.
”love nothing so much as their freedom”: Israel (1995), pp. 1ff.
”It is hardly to be imagined...”: Temple, p. 106.
”This simulacrum simulacrum of liberty...”: A IV.i.357ff. of liberty...”: A IV.i.357ff.
”From Spain came the Portuguese Jews...”: A IV.i.358, 357.
”Ritch merchants, not evill esteem'd off...”: Gullan-Whur, p. 8.
”I saw giants in scholars.h.i.+p...”: Nadler (1999), p. 61.
”Nature endowed him...”: Freudenthal, p. 36 ”He was not yet fifteen...”: Freudenthal, p. 24.
When he was around ten: Freudenthal, p. 20.
”a celebrity among the Jews...”: Freudenthal, p. 4.
the offending rabbi off to Brazil: See Nadler (1999) and (2003) for interesting detail on Morteira and the Jewish community in Amsterdam.
”He admired the conduct...”: Freudenthal, p. 4.
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