2020/01/08

알라딘: 스피노자 서간집



알라딘: 스피노자 서간집

스피노자 서간집 | 대우고전총서 48
B. 스피노자 (지은이),이근세 (옮긴이)아카넷2018-12-27







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476쪽
128*188mm (B6)
476g
ISBN : 9788957336182

책소개
1925년 카를 게브하르트(Carl Gebhardt)가 편집한 『스피노자 전집(SPINOZA OPERA)』의 제4권 『서간집(EPISTOLAE)』에 포함된 84통의 서신들을 완역한 것이다. 17세기의 철학자들이 주고받은 서신들은 오늘날의 논문집과 유사한 역할을 담당했다. 동시에 서신들이 단지 익명적인 것은 아니기 때문에 서신들을 통해 당시 철학자들의 구체적인 태도를 엿볼 수 있다.

서신은 한 철학 안에서 제시된 세계관과 인간관이 그 철학을 산출한 철학자의 삶에서 실질적으로 표현되고 있는지의 여부를 판단하게 해주는 독보적인 문헌이다. 따라서 철학자들의 서신을 통해 우리는 그들의 철학 체계를 단지 이론 체계로 보는 한계를 벗어나 철학적 이해에 구체성을 부여할 수 있다. 스피노자의 서신도 역시 같은 모습을 보여주며 자신의 철학 체계에 대한 직접적인 해설과 함께 그의 실천적 태도를 보여주는 1차 문헌인 것이다.


목차


ㅇ 서신 1. 헨리 올덴부르크가 스피노자에게
ㅇ 서신 2. 스피노자가 올덴부르크에게―서신 1에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 3. 헨리 올덴부르크가 스피노자에게―서신 2에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 4. 스피노자가 헨리 올덴부르크에게―서신 3에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 5. 헨리 올덴부르크가 스피노자에게―서신 4에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 6. 스피노자가 헨리 올덴부르크에게
ㅇ 서신 7. 헨리 올덴부르크가 스피노자에게―서신 6에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 8. 시몬 데 브리스가 스피노자에게
ㅇ 서신 9. 스피노자가 시몬 데 브리스에게―서신 8에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 10. 스피노자가 시몬 데 브리스에게
ㅇ 서신 11. 헨리 올덴부르크가 스피노자에게―서신 6에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 12. 스피노자가 뤼도웨이크 메이어르에게
ㅇ 서신 13. 스피노자가 헨리 올덴부르크에게―서신 11에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 14. 헨리 올덴부르크가 스피노자에게―서신 13에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 15. 스피노자가 뤼도웨이크 메이어르에게
ㅇ 서신 16. 헨리 올덴부르크가 스피노자에게
ㅇ 서신 17. 스피노자가 피터르 발링에게
ㅇ 서신 18. 블리엔베르그가 스피노자에게
ㅇ 서신 19. 스피노자가 블리엔베르그에게―서신 18에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 20. 블리엔베르그가 스피노자에게―서신 19에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 21. 스피노자가 블리엔베르그에게―서신 20에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 22. 블리엔베르그가 스피노자에게―서신 21에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 23. 스피노자가 블리엔베르그에게―서신 22에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 24. 블리엔베르그가 스피노자에게―서신 23에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 25. 헨리 올덴부르크가 스피노자에게
ㅇ 서신 26. 스피노자가 헨리 올덴부르크에게―서신 25에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 27. 스피노자가 블리엔베르그에게―서신 24에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 28. 스피노자가 요하네스 바우와메스테르에게
ㅇ 서신 29. 헨리 올덴부르크가 스피노자에게
ㅇ 서신 30. 스피노자가 헨리 올덴부르크에게―서신 29에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 31. 헨리 올덴부르크가 스피노자에게―서신 30에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 32. 스피노자가 헨리 올덴부르크에게―서신 31에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 33. 헨리 올덴부르크가 스피노자에게―서신 32에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 34. 스피노자가 후드에게
ㅇ 서신 35. 스피노자가 후드에게
ㅇ 서신 36. 스피노자가 후드에게
ㅇ 서신 37. 스피노자가 요하네스 바우와메스테르에게
ㅇ 서신 38. 스피노자가 요하네스 판 데르 메르에게
ㅇ 서신 39. 스피노자가 야리그 옐레스에게
ㅇ 서신 40. 스피노자가 야리그 옐레스에게
ㅇ 서신 41. 스피노자가 야리그 옐레스에게
ㅇ 서신 42. 람베르트 판 벨튀센이 야콥 오스텐스에게
ㅇ 서신 43. 스피노자가 야콥 오스텐스에게―서신 42에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 44. 스피노자가 야리그 옐레스에게
ㅇ 서신 45. 라이프니츠가 스피노자에게
ㅇ 서신 46. 스피노자가 라이프니츠에게―서신 45에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 47. 파브리키우스가 스피노자에게
ㅇ 서신 48. 스피노자가 파브리키우스에게―서신 47에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 48-2. 스피노자가 야리그 옐레스에게
ㅇ 서신 49. 스피노자가 요하네스 게오르기우스 그래비우스에게
ㅇ 서신 50. 스피노자가 야리그 옐레스에게
ㅇ 서신 51. 휘호 복셀이 스피노자에게
ㅇ 서신 52. 스피노자가 휘호 복셀에게―서신 51에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 53. 휘호 복셀이 스피노자에게―서신 52에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 54. 스피노자가 휘호 복셀에게―서신 53에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 55. 휘호 복셀이 스피노자에게―서신 54에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 56. 스피노자가 휘호 복셀에게―서신 55에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 57. 에렌프리트 발터 폰 치른하우스가 스피노자에게
ㅇ 서신 58. 스피노자가 슐러에게―서신 57에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 59. 에렌프리트 발터 폰 치른하우스가 스피노자에게
ㅇ 서신 60. 스피노자가 에렌프리트 발터 폰 치른하우스에게―서신 59에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 61. 헨리 올덴부르크가 스피노자에게
ㅇ 서신 62. 헨리 올덴부르크가 스피노자에게
ㅇ 서신 63. 슐러가 스피노자에게―서신 60에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 64. 스피노자가 슐러에게―서신 63에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 65. 에렌프리트 발터 폰 치른하우스가 스피노자에게―서신 64에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 66. 스피노자가 에렌프리트 발터 폰 치른하우스에게―서신 65에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 67. 알베르트 뷔르흐가 스피노자에게
ㅇ 서신 68. 스피노자가 헨리 올덴부르크에게―서신 61에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 69. 스피노자가 람베르트 판 벨튀센에게
ㅇ 서신 70. 슐러가 스피노자에게―서신 66에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 71. 헨리 올덴부르크가 스피노자에게―서신 68에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 72. 스피노자가 슐러에게―서신 70에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 73. 스피노자가 헨리 올덴부르크에게―서신 71에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 74. 헨리 올덴부르크가 스피노자에게―서신 73에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 75. 스피노자가 헨리 올덴부르크에게―서신 74에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 76. 스피노자가 알베르트 뷔르흐에게―서신 67에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 77. 헨리 올덴부르크가 스피노자에게―서신 75에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 78. 스피노자가 헨리 올덴부르크에게―서신 77에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 79. 헨리 올덴부르크가 스피노자에게―서신 78에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 80. 에렌프리트 발터 폰 치른하우스가 스피노자에게―서신 72에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 81. 스피노자가 에렌프리트 발터 폰 치른하우스에게―서신 80에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 82. 에렌프리트 발터 폰 치른하우스가 스피노자에게―서신 81에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 83. 스피노자가 에렌프리트 발터 폰 치른하우스에게―서신 82에 대한 회신
ㅇ 서신 84. 스피노자가 벗에게

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책속에서


책속에서



스피노자의 사상은 요컨대 철학적 논의에 막대한 양분을 제공 하는 유신론과 무신론의 논쟁이라는 맥락에서 파악해야 한다. 이 논쟁은 형이상학과 더불어 윤리학, 즉 삶의 구체적 방향을 결정지을 수 있기 때문에 피상적으로 접근해서는 안 될 것이다.(p428) - 겨울호랑이

스피노자가 인정하는 신의 개념은 어떠한 것인가? 그의 신은 인격신이 아니다. 목적성을 가진 창조, 혹은 무로부터의창조(creatio ex nihilo)는 인격신을 통해 이루어지는 것이다. 즉 지성을 통해 창조할 세계를 구상하고 의지와 힘을 통해 세계를 현존케 하는 신 개념을 필요로 하는 것이 창조이다. 그러나 스피노자는 인격신 개념에서 신 안에서의 간극과 결여 및 불완전성을 보고 있기 때문에 세계가 지성에 의해 미리 구상되고 의지나 힘에 의해 나중에 실현되는 방식을 받아들일 수 없다.(p439) 접기 - 겨울호랑이

이 세계는 여러 세계들 가운데 선택된 세계가 아니라 유일한 전체일 뿐이다. 이 세계는 어떤 지성에 의해 미리 생각되고 창조된 것이 아니라, 계획과 실현 간의 그 어떠한 간극도 없이 그 자체로 영원으로부터 존재하는 것이다. 신이 바로 이 세계이다. 스피노자 철학의 핵심 을 표현하는 ˝신 즉 자연(Deus sive Natura)˝이 바로 이런 의미이다. 자연이라는 자연주의적 존재론을 확립하고 인간이 행복에 이르는 길을 이 존재론의 토대 위에 그리는 것이 스피노자 윤리학의 골자이다. 접기 - 겨울호랑이

인간의 본질은 자신의 존재를 보존하려는 욕망이다. 스피노자의 윤리학은 욕망의 윤리학이다. 존재를 보존하고 완전한 자기 자신이 되는 것이 현존자의 유일한 규범이고 목표이다. 원초적 힘과 욕망이 인간의 근본을 이룬다. 이런 근원적 존재 보존 노력이, 스피노자가 코나투스(conatus)라 명명하는 인간의 본질이다. 욕망은 본질적으로 힘의 증진, 더 큰 완전성의 획득, 즉 기쁨으로 향한다.(p441) 접기 - 겨울호랑이

스피노자의 욕망의 윤리학은 실존적이고 행복주의이다. 욕망의 윤리학은 인식이고 여정이며, 구조이고 지혜이며, 엄격함이고 기쁨이다. 욕망의 완성은 완전한 기쁨이며 극도의 존재 의식이다. 이런 욕망의 여정은 지극히 험준하지만 도달할 수 있는 길이다. 그러나 모든 고귀한 것은 드문 만큼 어려운 것이다. (Sed omniapraeclara tam difficilia, quam rara sunt.)(p445) 접기 - 겨울호랑이




추천글


이 책을 추천한 다른 분들 :
한겨레 신문
- 한겨레 신문 2019년 1월 11일자
연합뉴스
- 연합뉴스 2019년 1월 15일자



저자 및 역자소개
B. 스피노자 (Baruch de Spinoza) (지은이)
저자파일
최고의 작품 투표
신간알림 신청


데카르트, 라이프니츠와 함께 근대 합리론을 대변하는 철학자이다. 그는 유태교 목사가 되기를 거부하고 자유롭게 사유하고 그것을 발표하는 데 자신의 일생을 바쳤다. 그의 사상은 정신과 물질을 구분하는 데카르트의 이원론을 극복하려는 데서 시작한다. 따라서 무한성에 대한 사상, 수학적 사고방식, 근대 자연과학의 원리들, 자연적 종교의 개념과 플라톤 철학의 반영 등이 그의 사상의 특징으로 부각된다. 이는 우주 의 본질을 실체 또는 자연이라고 하여 신과 실체와 자연이 하나라고 보는 데서 잘 나타난다. 그가 생전에 출판한 책은 『데카르트의 철학의 원리』, 『신학-정치론』 두 편이고, 『에티카』, 『정치학 논고』, 『지성 개선론』, 『신과 인간과 인간의 행복에 대한 짧은 논문』 등은 모두 유작으로 그의 친구들에 의해 출판되었다. 접기


최근작 : <에티카>,<스피노자 서간집>,<신학-정치론> … 총 74종 (모두보기)

이근세 (옮긴이)

경희대학교 철학과를 졸업하고 벨기에 루뱅 대학교 철학고등연구소(ISP)에서 박사학위를 취득했다. 브뤼셀 통·번역대학교(ISTI) 강사를 역임하고 귀국하여 현재 국민대학교 교양대학 교수로 재직하고 있다. 주요 연구 분야는 서양 근대 철학, 프랑스 철학이며, 점차 연구의 초점을 동서 비교철학으로 이동시키고 있다.
저서로 『효율성, 문명의 편견』 등이 있고, 역서로 『스피노자와 도덕의 문제』 『변신론』 『전략: 고대 그리스에서 현대 중국까지』 등이 있다. 연구 논문으로는 「스피노자의 존재론 기초」 「스피노자의 철학에 있어서 시간성과 윤리」 「블롱델의 행동 철학과 라이프니츠의 실체적 연결고리 가설」 「프랑수아 줄리앙의 비교철학에서 중국과 서양의 효율성 개념 비교」 「야코비의 사유 구조와 스피노자의 영향」 「이념의 문제와 글쓰기 전략」 「동아시아적 이념의 가능성」 「모리스 블롱델의 현상학적 방법론」 「데카르트와 코기토 논쟁」 「조선 천주교 박해와 관용의 원리」 외 다수가 있다.

접기


최근작 : <효율성, 문명의 편견> … 총 12종 (모두보기)


출판사 제공 책소개

서간집￣한 철학 안에서 제시된 세계관과 인간관이 그 철학을 산출한
철학자의 삶에서 표현되는 방식을 보여주는 독보적인 문헌


이 책은 1925년 카를 게브하르트(Carl Gebhardt)가 편집한 『스피노자 전집(SPINOZA OPERA)』의 제4권 『서간집(EPISTOLAE)』에 포함된 84통의 서신들을 완역한 것이다.
17세기의 철학자들이 주고받은 서신들은 오늘날의 논문집과 유사한 역할을 담당했다. 동시에 서신들이 단지 익명적인 것은 아니기 때문에 서신들을 통해 당시 철학자들의 구체적인 태도를 엿볼 수 있다. 서신은 한 철학 안에서 제시된 세계관과 인간관이 그 철학을 산출한 철학자의 삶에서 실질적으로 표현되고 있는지의 여부를 판단하게 해주는 독보적인 문헌이다. 따라서 철학자들의 서신을 통해 우리는 그들의 철학 체계를 단지 이론 체계로 보는 한계를 벗어나 철학적 이해에 구체성을 부여할 수 있다. 스피노자의 서신도 역시 같은 모습을 보여주며 자신의 철학 체계에 대한 직접적인 해설과 함께 그의 실천적 태도를 보여주는 1차 문헌인 것이다.

모든 커다란 철학이 다양한 해석을 낳는 것은 주지의 사실이지만 스피노자의 철학만큼 상반된 해석 대상이 되어 온 철학 체계는 드물 것이다. 그의 사후(1677)부터 현대까지 스피노자의 철학은 끊임없이 다양한 관점에서 해석되어 왔다. 스피노자는 18세기에는 무신론적 이성론의 원형으로, 19세기에는 특히 독일에서 신비적·범신론적·종교적 철학의 이미지로 나타났다. 1993년 파리1대학에서 35명의 스피노자 전문가들이 발표한 논문집 『20세기의 스피노자』는 스피노자를 “혁명적” 철학자로서 “모든 사유 체계의 변천의 매개자”로 소개하고 있다. 이 저작에 실린 논문들은 스피노자와 베르그손, 브런슈빅, 바슐라르, 들뢰즈, 레비나스, 칼 포퍼, 하이데거, 러셀, 한나 아렌트 등 다른 철학자들의 비교에서부터 시작하여 문학, 마르크스 사상, 프로이트와 라캉의 정신분석학 등과의 관계를 조명함으로써 스피노자 철학이 지닌 의미의 함축성과 다
양성을 폭넓게 제시하고 있다. 이런 연구는 스피노자 철학에 대한 연구가 세계적으로 얼마나 활발히 진행되고 있는지를 상징적으로 보여준다.
스피노자 철학의 중요성이 부각되면서 최근 20여 년간 국내에서도 스피노자에 관한 연구는 활발히 진행되어 왔다. 스피노자의 사상은 한편으로는 『소론』, 『지성개선론』, 『데카르트의 철학원리』 등의 초기 저작들 및 『에티카』에서 전개되는 존재론, 인식론, 감정론, 윤리학, 다른 한편으로는 『신학정치론』과 『정치론』에서 중점적으로 다루어지는 신학 및 정치철학으로 크게 구분될 수 있다. 이미 『에티카』나 『신학정치론』 등의 완결된 주저는 여러 연구자들에 의해 번역 출간되었고 초기의 미완성 저작들도 부분적으로나마 번역되어 소개되었으며, 다수의 스피노자 관련 연구서 및 교양 저작들도 발간되었다. 그러나 정작 영미, 유럽권의 모든 스피노자 전문가들이 1차 문헌으로서 적극적으로 활용해왔으며 스피노자 전집에 당당히 포함되어 있는 서간집은 국내에 전혀 소개되지 않고 있다. 단지 몇몇 연구자들에 의해서 전문 논문에서 다루어질 뿐이다. 이 책을 통해 국내 스피노자 연구의 이 같은 공백이 메워졌으면 한다

서신이라는 형식 때문에 철학자들은 상대방의 언어를 사용하는 경우가 많으므로 서간집은 비교적 쉬운 언어로 그들의 사상이 표현된 값진 자료를 제공해준다. 또한 서신들을 통해 우리는 철학 사상의 진화 과정 및 시대적 배경 등을 확인할 수 있기 때문에, 서간집과 함께 철학 작품을 고찰할 경우 철학 체계에 대한 이해도를 극대화할 수 있다. 실제로 스피노자의 서간집은 철학적 토론 외에도 집필 과정, 용어 변화, 출판 현황, 시대 배경 등을 구체적으로 알려주기 때문에 그의 사상을 재구성하는 데 필수적인 역할을 한다.
철학자의 사상을 이해하기 위해 그의 주저들을 해독해야 함은 물론이다. 그러나 철학 저작들은 주요 개념이나 체계에 대한 구체적 예를 제시하지 않는 경우가 많다. 우리는 철학자의 서신을 통해 주요 개념의 풍부한 예시를 획득함으로써 이론 체계를 깊이 이해할 수 있을 뿐 아니라 이론 체계의 확장성을 확인할 수 있다. 실제로 스피노자의 서간집이 없었다면, 그의 존재론에서 매우 난해하고도 중요한 개념인 속성이나 무한 양태에 대한 구체적 이해는 불가능했을 것이다. 또한 ‘예수의 부활’ 같은 민감한 사안은 그의 신학 저작에서도 잘 다루어지지 않고 있지만, 서신에서는 적극적 설명의 대상이 되고 있다. 따라서 스피노자의 서간집은 후대의 연구자들에게 보조적 역할을 넘어서 그의 철학 체계를 온전히 재정립하기 위한 독보적 문헌이다. 접기

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『스피노자 서간집』과 사유의 실천

이근세 국민대 · 교양대학
승인 2019.01.29
https://www.kyosu.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=43768


책을 말하다_ 『스피노자 서간집』 (베네딕트 데 스피노자 지음, 이근세 옮김, 아카넷, 2018.12)

“오늘날의 신학자들이 제 저작으로 불쾌해하고 그들의 습관적인 적개심으로 저를 비난할까 걱정이 됩니다. (......) 이 저작이 설교자들을 다소 불쾌하게 할 수 있는 내용을 선생님께 알려드린다면 다음과 같습니다. 저는 그들이 신에게 귀속시키는 신의 여러 속성들을 피조물들로서 간주하며, 그들이 편견 때문에 피조물로 간주하는 다른 것들을 신의 속성들로 간주합니다. 저는 그들이 신의 속성들을 제대로 이해하고 있지 못하다는 것을 제시하려고 합니다. 나아가 저는 제가 알고 있는 저자들이 그렇게 하듯이 신과 자연을 분리하지 않습니다.”

영국 왕립학술원 초대 사무총장인 헨리 올덴부르크에게 스피노자가 1661년에 보낸 편지의 일부이다. 편지에서 나타나듯이 스피노자는 자신의 철학이 지닌 논란의 성격을 정확히 자각하고 있었다. 그는 유대인으로서 유대교를 거부한 이유로 동족에게 저주 섞인 파문을 당했고 서구문명을 크게 지배해온 기독교를 인정하지도 않았다. 스피노자는 지성을 통해 창조할 세계를 구상하고 의지와 능력을 통해 세계를 창조하는 인격신 개념, 그리고 이 개념에 근거한 창조론을 정면으로 부정한다. 스피노자는 인격신 개념에서 신 안에서의 간극, 결여, 불완전성을 보고 있기 때문에 세계가 지성에 의해 미리 구상되고 의지나 능력에 의해 논리적으로든 존재론적으로든 나중에 실현되는 방식을 받아들일 수 없다. 그가 인정하는 신은 지성이나 의지를 본질로 갖는 신이 아니다. 스피노자의 신은 인격적 존재가 아니며 계획과 실현 간의 어떤 간극도 없이 자기 본성의 필연성에 따라 존재하고 작용하는 자연 전체이다. 그러나 스피노자는 이런 생각이 담긴 『에티카』의 출간을 포기했다. 그의 생전에 출간된 『데카르트의 철학의 원리』는 스피노자 자신의 철학을 포함하지 않았고 『신학정치론』은 익명으로 출간되었다. 우리는 우리 자신의 생각을 완전히 감출 수 있는가?
▲ 베네딕트 데 스피노자 사진출처=구글

서구 문명권에서 계시종교의 역할은 막대한 것이고 모든 사상가는 어떤 방식으로든 기성 종교에 대한 견해 표명을 요구 받았다. 『스피노자 서간집』은 자기 생각을 전면적으로 드러낼 수도 없고 온전히 숨길 수도 없었던 스피노자의 삶의 전략이 담긴 문헌이다. 편지는 사적(私的)인 동시에 상대방이 있는 사회적 차원의 글이다. 스피노자의 편지들은 난해하기로 악명 높은 그의 철학 체계에 대한 해석의 권위가 보장된 문헌으로서 스피노자 철학의 풍성한 이해를 가능케 한다. 『스피노자 서간집』은 스피노자 철학에 대한 직접적인 해설과 함께 ‘사유의 실천’을 보여준다. 스피노자는 철학적 주제를 보편적인 방식으로 다루면서도 자신이 누구와 서신을 교환하고 있는지 정확히 알고 있다. 그는 상대방의 태도에 따라 자신의 태도를 규정함으로써 소모적인 논쟁에 휘말리지 않는다. 이 같은 신중함은 자기 자신에서 이탈하지 않는 가운데 타인을 이해하는 독특한 방식이며 그의 사상 체계로부터 도출되는 깊은 반성과 숙고의 결실이다. 모든 철학자가 그렇겠지만 스피노자에게 사유와 글쓰기는 삶의 가장 큰 부분이었고 서구의 지배적 담론과 엇갈린 길을 가던 그에게 편지는 자기 사유를 실천하는 조심스러운 통로였다.

『스피노자 서간집』은 1925년 칼 게브하르트(Carl Gebhardt)가 편집한 『스피노자 전집』(SPINOZA OPERA)의 제4권 『서간집』(EPISTOLAE)에 포함된 84통의 서신들의 번역이다. 

서양근대철학자들이 남긴 서신은 그들의 주저들을 압도할 정도로 풍부한 내용을 담고 있다. 데카르트 전집 11권 중 서신이 5권이고 라이프니츠의 서신은 2만 통이 넘는다. 작은 시작에 불과한 『스피노자 서간집』이지만 여타 서신 번역과 연구의 촉매제로 쓰였으면 한다.




이근세 국민대학교·교양대학
경희대학교 철학과를 졸업하고 벨기에 루뱅대학교 철학고등연구소(ISP)에서 박사학위를 취득했다. 주요 연구 분야는 서양근대철학, 프랑스철학이며, 점차 연구의 초점을 동서비교담론으로 이동시키고 있다. 주요 저서로는 『효율성, 문명의 편견』, 『철학의 물음들』 등이 있다.

저작권자 © 교수신문 무단전재 및 재배포 금지

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스피노자 연구의 빈칸 메워 주는 서간집
스피노자 서간집
스피노자 지음, 이근세 옮김/아카넷·2만6000원

17세기 철학자들이 주고받은 서신들은 오늘날 논문집과 유사한 구실을 했다. 또한 서신은 출판된 저서보다 특정 사안에 대해 필자의 관점을 더 구체적이고 용이하게 접할 수 있게 해주는 좋은 통로다. 철학적 토론 외에도 집필 과정이나 용어 변화, 시대 배경 등을 구체적으로 알려주는 문서이기에 후대 연구자들에겐 중요성이 저서 못지않다.


<스피노자 서간집> 또한 바뤼흐 스피노자(1632~1677) 연구에서 중요성이 높은 문서다. 이 서간집이 없었다면 그의 존재론에서 매우 난해하고도 중요한 개념인 ‘속성’이나 ‘무한 양태’에 대한 구체적인 이해는 불가능했을 것이며, 예수의 부활 같은 민감한 사안에 대한 설명도 알 수 없었으리라는 것이 학계의 평가다. <스피노자 서간집>은 1925년 카를 게브하르트가 편집한 ‘스피노자 전집’ 제4권에 포함된 84통의 서신들을 완역한 것으로 국내 초역이다. 벨기에 루뱅대학교에서 스피노자 연구 등으로 박사 학위를 받은 이근세 국민대 교양대학 교수가 번역을 맡았다.



바뤼흐 스피노자의 초상. 한겨레 자료사진

스피노자는 유대교 신앙을 버렸다는 이유로 24살에 파문당한 이후로 도시들을 떠돌며 렌즈를 연마하며 생계를 이으며 어렵게 생활하다 45살의 젊은 나이로 사망한 것으로 잘 알려져 있다. 하지만 이 서간집에는 영국 왕립학술원 초대 사무총장 헨리 올덴부르크나 암스테르담의 시장이자 수학자인 요하네스 후드 등 유력 인물들과 철학자 등과 주고받은 편지들이 실려 있어, 당시 학계에 널리 퍼진 스피노자의 명성을 확인할 수 있다. 또한 스피노자가 철학과 신학만이 아니라 수학과 과학을 두고 토론을 벌이는 대목에선 철학과 과학을 모두 섭렵한 당대 지식인의 모습을 엿볼 수 있다.

김지훈 기자

원문보기:
http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/culture/book/877962.html#csidx4515ddb52026ef8ae8fec7161804c9d 

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Opera Posthuma
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Baruch Spinoza's Opera Posthuma comprise his works that were published posthumously in 1677, the year of Spinoza's death, by some of his closest friends. Four of these are well known: the Ethica, the Tractatus Politicus, the Tractatus de Intellectus Emendatione, and the Epistolae (letters by Spinoza to correspondents, expounding aspects of his philosophy). The fifth and final work of the Opera Posthuma is a grammar of the Hebrew language, Compendium Grammatices Linguae Hebraeae.

Spinoza's Short Treatise on God, Man, and His Well-Being - expressing opinions sharply conflicting with the dominant Calvinist theology of his time as with the Judaism practiced by the Amsterdam Jewish community - was not included in the Opera Posthuma. It was only published much later, on the basis of two Dutch translations of it which were discovered about 1810."[1]

References[edit]

^ Scruton 1986 (2002 ed.), ch.1, p.22.

External links[edit]

Entry in Jewish Virtual Library
Opera posthuma Amsterdam 1677. Complete photographic reproduction, ed. by F. Mignini (Quodlibet publishing house website)



This article about a book on language, linguistics or translation is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

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Extracts from Spinoza’s Opera Posthuma

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55f6d5bde4b02cbdec67622e/t/57f40a4d725e25cc3e6e612d/1475611213495/MONO08.pdf

North American Spinoza Society
NASS MONOGRAPH #8 (1999)

Extracts from Spinoza’s Opera Posthuma Notes by G. W. Leibniz (1678)

Translated by
Samuel Shirley

Individuation in Leibniz and Spinoza

Lee C. Rice
Marquette University

A Note on De Mairan and Spinozism

Frederick Ablondi
Hendrix College
Copyright, 1999, North American Spinoza Society
Baltimore, Maryland
Contents
NASS Monograph #8
Extracts from Spinoza’s Opera Posthuma
Notes by G. W. Leibniz (1678)
Introduction by Lee Rice..................................... ................................3
Translation by Samuel Shirley............................. ................................7
Individuation in Leibniz and Spinoza
Lee C. Rice
Marquette University....................................... ..............................13
A Note on De Mairan and Spinozism
Frederick Ablondi
Hendrix College........................................................ ..............................33

Extracts from Spinoza’s Opera Posthuma Notes by G. W. Leibniz (1678)

Introduction
Lee C. Rice
In 1678, after receiving the Opera Posthuma of Spinoza, Leibniz wrote a set of notes on the Ethica. These notes first appeared in print in an edition by Grua,[1] and the Latin text was subsequently reprinted with French translation and commentary by Bouveresse.[2] Later in 1678 Leibniz was to write a detailed and more critical analysis of Ethica I, entitled De Deo, whose Latin text with French translation has been published by Foucher de Careil.[3] Later, during the period 1706-1710, Leibniz would also write his Animadversiones ad Wachteri librum recondita Hebraeorum philosophia.[4] These three works share the common feature that none were destined for publication by their author, which at least suggests a measure of sincerity in Leibniz’s comments which is not otherwise present in the works which he intended for publication.[5]
Although Leibniz wrote to Justel in 1678 that he found in Spinoza ‘‘a quantity of elegant thoughts conforming with my own, as is well known by several of my friends who have also read Spinoza,’’[6] beyond that single remark Leibniz was never to acknowledge in print an intellectual propinquity to Spinoza, though references to Spinoza’s thought abound throughout his printed works.[7] Friedmann argues[8] that, although Leibniz’s own dev elopment was not due to Spinoza’s thought, he ‘profited’ from a reading of Spinoza and in the continuous effort to incorporate those insights which he believed valid into his own systematic thought. Subsequent commentators have been less certain.[9] What is clear is that there are noteworthy similarities between the systematic thought of the two philosophers, and also that Leibniz was particularly concerned to disassociate himself from Spinoza’s monistic naturalism in the public eye. This latter preoccupation may go a long way toward explaining Leibniz’s own efforts to underline differences between his thought and that of Spinoza, differences which have often tended to eother dissolve or to diminish in significance under subsequent logical analysis and historical inquiry.
Leibniz’s notes on the Ethica constitute the least aggressive of the three commentaries by him, and thus reveal more than the others his admiration for certain themes in Spinoza. In dealing especially with E1 and E2, Leibniz often attempts to reformulate or interpret a definition, axiom or proposition; and the result is often a more concise statement than the one given by Spinoza. In his introduction to the Latin edition, Grua notes that Leibniz copied (or had others copy) all of the definitions, axioms, and propositions of the Ethica as it appeared in the Opera Posthuma of 1677. Grua’s edition, like the present translation, is an abridgement; since the editor did not reproduce those definitions, axioms, or propositions which are exact transcriptions from the Opera Posthuma. Internal references to the Ethica are also written out fully in Leibniz’s own notes, while the English translation follows Grua’s transparent abbreviations. Grua encloses
Leibniz’s      own   comments    (as opposed to literal transcriptions or paraphrases) within plus-signs (+), where the English translation precedes each comment or criticism with a plus-sign and indents it to a new line in the interest of perspicuity. Leibniz’s opening comment, that the notes are partly by others and may need correcting, probably refers to the exact transcriptions, which he apparently had made by others and then copied himself into his manuscript, which is wholly in his own hand. Grua argues convincingly that the notes, interpretive recastings, and criticisms are all the work of Leibniz himself.
Often, in the course of reformulating one of Spinoza’s axioms or definitions, Leibniz attempts to bring it closer to his own conception; and I have tried to indicate in the footnotes the more obvious of such instances. Certain passages (also footnoted by the translator) are also rather oblique in their references or intent; and I have attempted to provide some possible resolutions of Leibniz’s thought for most of these. Footnotes have otherwise been kept to a minimum in order to allow the text and Leibniz’s own commentary and critique to speak for themselves.
Several general remarks should be made concerning the direction of Leibniz’s thought in the notes. His criticisms of Spinoza’s naturalistic determinism (E1P17Schol) indicate the general direction which he was to take in later works in the effort never completely successful in my opinion, to reconcile freedom and determinism. His remarks and qualifications dealing with the material on individuation following E2P13 indicate the subsequent directions which his own thought would take in the development of a theory of individuation based on vis viva, as opposed to Spinoza’s dev elopment of a theory of conatus. Bouveresse also argues that, in his comments on E3, Leibniz formulates the first known statement of his own account of parallelism, which is significantly different from the parallelism offered by Spinoza in E2P7 and developed throughout E3. Further, in his notes on E3 and E4, Leibniz appears to express the greatest admiration (and the fewest number of criticisms) of Spinoza’s account of the human affects. Perhaps Leibniz, like Spinoza, had already realized that the effort to establish a new theory of affectivity made by Descartes in the Passions de l’aˆme was largely a disaster. Finally, Leibniz’s notes on E5 are particularly brief. As Grua notes, the entire set of notes provides little more than a literal transcription. But this section is no less critical than brief. One of Leibniz’s primary negative reactions to Spinoza was the latter’s denial of the traditional christian doctrine of immortality,[10] and formulates a number of the themes which Leibniz was to later develop as central to his own systematic thought.
Leibniz’s 1678 notes reveal the philosopher in his most sympathetic reading of the Ethica, while the two later works indicate a thinker more concerned to develop alternative concepts and explanations as a means of avoiding what he conceives as the major pitfalls of the spinozistic world view. While the appearance of these later works in an English translation is no less to be desired, the present translation documents a seminal juncture in the development of Leibniz’s own thought, and a careful, if not always sympathetic, reading of Spinoza’s Ethica.

Extracts from Spinoza’s Opera Posthuma Notes by G. W. Leibniz (1678)

Tr anslated by Samuel Shirley
The following notes are partly my own, partly by others. Those written by others need to be corrected on many points.

Ethics Part I

Finite in its own kind is that apart from which another thing of the same nature can be conceived, or that which can be limited by another thing of the same nature. (Def. 2)
Substance is that which is in itself, or that which is not in another thing as its substratum.[11] (Def. 3)
Attribute is an essential predicate[12] or a necessary predicate. (Def. 4)
Mode is a predicate that is not necessary, i.e., it is subject to change. (Def. 5)[13]
God is an absolutely infinite being, that is, infinite in respect of his essence. While other things are infinite in respect of extension or duration, he is infinite in respect of all things that express some degree of reality. (Def. 6)[14]
That thing is said to be free which is determined only by virtue of its own nature to exist and to act in a definite way. (Def. 7)
To be constrained is to be determined by another thing to exist in a definite way and to produce an effect. (Def. 7)
Eternity is the necessity to exist. (Def. 8)
That which is conceived in itself and through itself is that the knowledge of which does not require the knowledge of another thing. (Def. 2)
There is nothing that is without cause. (Ax. 3)[15]
Knowledge of an effect depends on and involves knowledge of the cause. (Ax. 4)
Things which have nothing in common with each other cannot be understood through each other. (Ax. 5)
No definition involves a fixed number of individuals. Therefore Being, in an absolute sense is one, and only one. (Pr. 8, Sch. 2)
A reason must be able to be assigned not only for a thing’s existence but also for its non-existence. (Pr. 11, Second proof).
The greater the degree of reality there is in a thing, the more force it has to exist. (Pr. 11, Sch.)
An infinite quantity cannot be composed of finite parts. If corporeal substance could be so divided that all its parts would be really distinct, why could not one of its parts be annihilated while the other parts remained as before? Or in other words, why could there not be a vacuum? Matter is everywhere the same, and we distinguish parts in it only when we conceive it as affected in various ways. Hence it follows that its parts are distinct only modally, not really. Water, in so far as it is merely water, can be divided up and go out of existence, but not in so far as it is corporeal substance. (Prop. 15,
Sch.)
+ Body is a mode of extension.
God does everything he can do, and it is from God’s nature that all things flow always and necessarily, just as the affections of a triangle flow from its essence. (Pr. 17, Sch.)
+ These statements are based on a play upon words with regard to the word necessity. And the comparison with a triangle is ill-conceived, since in the case of a triangle there is no place for thought [cogitatio], as there is in the case of God. As a result, God produces only the things that he thinks best.[16] The only way in which, in a particular manner of speaking, the word impossible (sic) is applicable, is that it is impossible that God should not prefer those things (the best) to others.[17]
+ There is a contradiction between Pr. 17, Sch., towards the end, and Pr.3. In Pr.3 cause and effect have something in common, whereas in the Scholium the divine intellect agrees with ours only in name.[18]
+ The comparison between the affections of God and those of a triangle is unapt. There could be no affections of a triangle unless other things could be conceived independently of the triangle, even if the triangle could be conceived through itself.[19]
God is not the remote cause of things. (Pr. 28, Sch.)
Natura naturans is that which is in itself and is conceived through itself; Natura naturata is that which follows therefrom. (Pr. 29)[20]
A thing is impossible either because its definition involves a contradiction or because there is no external cause determined to produce such a thing. (Pr. 33, Sch.1)
Nothing exists from whose nature an effect does not follow. (Pr. 36)
Why did God not create men in such a way that they would be governed solely by reason? Because he did not lack material for creating all things from the highest to the lowest degree of perfection; or rather because the laws of his nature were so comprehensive as to suffice for the production of everything that can be conceived by infinite intellect. (Appendix to Part 1, near the end)

Ethics Part II

Perfection is degree of reality. (Def. 6)
In God there is the idea of his essence, and of those things that follow from that essence. (Pr. 3)
+ Therefore that idea is not in his essence itself; therefore there is in God something that does not pertain to his essence.[21]
Whatever happens in the object of the idea constituting the human mind is bound to be perceived by the human mind; i.e., the idea of that thing will necessarily be in the human mind. That is to say, if the object of the idea constituting the human mind is a body, nothing can happen in that body without its being perceived by the mind. (Pr. 12, not noted)
All things are animate,[22] albeit in different degrees. (Pr. 13, Sch.)[23]
In proportion as a body is more apt than other bodies to act and to be acted upon simultaneously in many ways, so is its mind more apt than other minds to perceive many things simultaneously; and in proportion as the actions of one body depend on itself alone and the less that other bodies concur with it in its actions, the more apt is its mind to understand distinctly. (Pr. 13, Sch.)
If the parts of an individual thing undergo change while yet preserving their shape and motion, or even if there is an increase in their motion, their magnitude and their matter while the former proportion is preserved, the individual thing will remain the same. (Pr. 13, lemma 5)
+ It is also necessary that the same relation to external things be preserved.[24]
Memory is the linking of ideas involving the nature of things outside the human body, a linking which occurs in the mind in parallel with the order and the linking of the affections of the human body. (Pr. 18, Sch.)
+ Therefore when we have sensed things together and the image of one of them recurs, we also imagine the other.
The mind has no knowledge of the body, nor does it know it to exist, except through ideas of the body’s affections. (Pr. 19)
The mind does not know itself except in so far as it perceives ideas of the affections of the body. (Pr. 23)
Knowledge of a conclusion[25] without premisses is confused. (Pr. 28, proof)
An idea is inadequate in us when God has that idea not only in so far as he constitutes the human mind but also in so far as he has the idea of another thing simultaneously with the human mind. (Pr. 11, Sch.)
Falsity consists in the privation of knowledge which inadequate ideas involve. For example, men are deceived in thinking that they act without cause, for they do not perceive the causes which determine their actions. In the same way we are wrong in thinking that the sun is about 200 feet distant from us, or that it is small. The error does not consist in our seeing the sun in this way, but in that we do not know its true distance and the cause of our seeing it so. (Pr. 35 and Sch.)
Propositions 37, 38, 38, 40. . .
Here are set forth the fundamental causes of the notions we call common, some being more useful than others. Secondary notions are axioms. (Pr. 40, Sch.)
An image is an affection of the human body, the idea of which sets forth an external body as present to us. (Pr. 17, Sch.)
+ Because of the similarity of the impressions or motions in us which are produced by its presence.
The human mind is capable of imagining as many bodies distinctly at the same time as there are images capable of being formed at the same time in its body. But when these images become confused, the mind will imagine the bodies in a confused way, and will comprehend them under one attribute, Entity or Thing. (Pr. 40, Sch. 1)
+ That which we cannot denominate by any other mark, we call Thing.[26]
When we are unable to make distinction between so many images deriving from different men, this gives rise to a confused image of human nature. (Pr. 40, Sch. 1)
+ It seems to me that the image of a species is given us even when we know only one individual.[27]
Three kinds of knowledge. There is knowledge of the first kind when the reason for it is not apparent. Knowledge of the second kind arises from our possessing common notions and adequate ideas of the properties of things. Knowledge of the third kind, which we call intuitive, proceeds from the adequate idea of the formal essence of certain attributes in God to the adequate knowledge of the essence of things. Now here are the three kinds of knowledge illustrated by one example: we find the fourth proportional by multiplying the second by the third and dividing the product by the first. This procedure is known to tradesmen either from experience or from being taught it, while mathematicians know it by studying the proof, that is, from the common property of proportionality. But in the case of very simple numbers the becomes clear through intuition — as in the case of 1,
2, 3, the fourth proportional is 6. And this is clearer from intuition than from a proof of a general kind. (Pr. 40, Sch. 2)[28]
He who has an adequate idea knows that he has an adequate idea, and cannot doubt its truth. That is, there is no better basis for judgment than the clear and distinct idea itself. (Pr. 43)
It is of the nature of reason to regard things under the form of eternity, and not as related to a definite time; that is, it is of the nature of reason to consider things as necessary, not as contingent. (Pr. 44 and Cor. 2)
The idea of any particular thing involves the infinite and eternal essence of God, because things cannot be conceived apart from their cause, that is, apart from God. And God as cause must be conceived adequately, because he is at the same time in the whole and in the parts. (Prs. 45,
46)
+ It is the very idea of essence or reality.
Most errors consist only in the incorrect application of words to things.[29]Thus, when men make mistakes in arithmetic, they hav e figures in mind that are different from those on paper. (Pr. 47, Sch.)
By will I understand the faculty of affirming and denying; I do not mean desire. (Pr. 48, Sch.)
There is in the mind no volition, that is, affirmation and negation, except that which an idea, in so far as it is an idea, involves. (Pr. 49)

Ethics Part III

Adequate cause . . . inadequate cause . . . to be active . . . to be passive . . . emotions. (Definitions 1, 2, 3, Prop. 1, Prop. 2)
+ The series of ideas is distinct from the series of bodies, and there is only a reciprocal correspondence.[30]
We desire a thing moderately when our appetite can easily be kept in check by the remembrance of another thing. (Pr. 2, Sch.)
The endeavour [conatus] to preserve ourselves, when more closely related to mind, is called Will [voluntas]; when it is related to mind and body together, it is called Appetite [appetitus], and Desire [cupiditas] is appetite in so far as that is considered together with the consciousness of itself. (Pr. 9, Sch.)
Hence it follows that we do not strive for, will, seek a thing because we judge it to be good. On the contrary, we judge a thing to be good
because we strive . . . etc. (Pr. 9, Sch.)
+ But it seems to me that neither is the cause of the other; they accompany each other, as do thought and motion. (Pr. 2)[31]
Prop. 11 — Pleasure [laetitia], Pain [tristitia], Titillation [titillatio], anguish [dolor], Cheerfulness [hilaritas], Melancholy [melancholia]. (Pr. 11, Sch.)
Prop. 12. We endeavour to imagine only those things that posit our power. For the more distinctly we thus contemplate ourselves, the more we pass into a state of greater perfection. (Pleasure, Prop. 11, Sch.)
Love [amor], hatred [odium]. (Pr. 13, Sch.)
Timidity [timor]. (Pr. 39, Sch.)
+ There should be some emotion relating to Hope [spes] in the same way as Timidity relates to Fear [metus].
The pleasure that arises from regarding ourselves is called Self-love [philautia] or Contentment [acquiescentia]. Hence it follows that ev eryone is eager to tell of his exploits and to boast of himself. (Pr. 55, Cor. 1, Sch.)
+ If a man does not make some display of his actions, this is for one of the following reasons: either he is a humble person, or he is dull or his mind is engaged on other matters, or he is a despiser of present reality.
Definition of Emotions 38. Cruelty [crudelitas] or Savageness [saevitia] is the desire whereby someone is urged to inflict injury on one whom we love or whom we pity.
+ One whom we feel we ought to love or to pity.
Consternation [consternatio] is the term applied to one whose desire to avoid some evil is checked by a feeling of of wonder evoked by the
evil which he fears. (Def. 42)
+ I disagree, and the definitions do not accord with this.
General Definition of the Emotions.
+ I am surprised that he has not made clear what is common to pleasure, pain and desire, as he should have done.[32]

Ethics Part IV

. . . an imagining is stronger when we are thinking of nothing that excludes the present existence of the external thing. (Pr. 9, Proof) + For it is by that alone that we distinguish between imagining and sense-perception.
If two similar individuals are combined, they compose an individual twice as powerful. (Pr. 18, Sch.)
+ Indeed, more than twice as powerful.
Prop. 29.
+ This is not a valid proof.
Confidence [securitas] and Joy [gaudium] are emotions of pleasure, but they imply a preceding pain. (Pr. 47, Sch.)
+ Indeed, and the pleasure is greater when preceded by pain.
If we exercised reason, we would not prefer present things to future things.
(Pr. 62, Sch.)
+ But what about future things?[33]
Prop. 66.
+ I would say that we should take more account of future things than of present things.
Prop. 69.
+ I doubt this.[34]
Prop. 72, Schol.
+ What if a man, using deception, could free himself from imminent danger of death? His answer is obscure.[35]

Ethics Part V

Prop. 9. The proof is supplemented by reference to Pr. 5.
Prop. 23, Proof and Sch.
+ Since the body is always changing, it is difficult to see how its idea or mind can remain the same.[36]
Prop. 38.
+ An objection can be raised: if that love is eternal, what need is there to attain it? Moreover, it must be said that, whereas it is indeed eternal, unless it is actually aroused by me in my body, it does not pertain to this my body.37
Death is the less hurtful in proportion as the mind’s clear and distinct knowledge is greater. (Pr. 38, Sch.) + But what if we have forgotten?38

Individuation in Leibniz and Spinoza Lee C. Rice Marquette University

1. Introduction: The Problem in Leibniz

Although the majority of his commentators see the concept of individuation as one of the fundamental building blocks of Leibniz’s system, the position of this concept within his thought has varied in time. Tw o early works are devoted wholly to it: the Disputatio de principio individui of 1663[37] and the Dissertatio de principio individui of 1675.[38] The problem in both these works was that of determining the nature of an individuating principle in a world of ‘things’ taken as a given. The principle is taken as a given in 1686 when Leibniz completes the Discours de me´taphysique. The phrase ‘individual substance’, however, disappears after 1686, and is replaced by ‘simple substance’ or ‘monad’ in the Monadology (1714). Bitbol-Hespe´rie`s (1991, 79) argues that, beginning with the Syste`me nouveau de la nature et de la communication des substances (1695), the term ‘individual’ (individuum) is reserved for one particular class of such substances: the human soul.
In the Disputatio of 1663, Leibniz writes that ‘‘The individual is. . . either something logical in the order of predication or something metaphysical in the series of things.’’ Russell (1900) and Couturat (1901) both see Leibniz’s thoughts on individuation as stemming from his reflexions on the ‘predicate-in-notion’ claim: the subject term of primary true propositions includes or implies the totality of predicates possessed by the item denoted by the subject (see also Hacking 1976, 137-139). On this supposition the entirety of Leibniz’s metaphysics is derived from a logical theory about the structure of propositions.
The Russell-Couturat account has been most influential among anglophone authors; and, while there is certainly some truth to it, it fails to account for the multi-faceted structure of Leibniz’s dev elopment. Gueroult (1967) is representative of a tradition which sees Leibniz’s metaphysics as a derivative of his reflexions on physics, particularly the leibnizean developments of the notion of force (vis viva and conatus) which are omnipresent in Leibniz’s later works. A more sustained (in terms of physics) argument for Gueroult’s position is given by Buchdahl (1969, 405-438), who successfully derives Leibniz’s mechanistic models from his conservation principles in physics, and his teleological principles from an analogue in optics. It would be an error, I believe, to view GueroultBuchdahl as a competitive alternative to Russell-Couturat. Rather, each of the two accounts captures an important and often (but not always) dominant aspect of Leibniz’s dev elopment.
But there is also a third source for this development. In 1857 Foucher de Careil published, with translation and commentary, a set of notes which Leibniz had written on a book by Wachter on Spinoza.[39] In these Animadversiones, Leibniz juxtaposes his own interpretation of Paul’s phrase, ‘‘Everything exists and moves in God,’’ with that of Spinoza; though his juxtaposition makes it clear that his own interpretation is quite similar to that of Spinoza at E2P43Schol (Friedmann 1962, 161-162). The few critical points which Leibniz raises against Spinoza seem misplaced (Bouveresse 1992, 190-191), especially his claim that Spinoza’s view of the human soul leads to the concept of world soul. These same critical points are recapitulated later (1702) by Leibniz in his Conside´rations sur la doctrine d’un esprit universel[40] and still later at many points in the Theodicy. These texts give rise to yet a third source for the development of Leibniz’s thought on individuation: the desire to avoid the monistic naturalism of Spinoza. While this preoccupation is a negative one, it certainly acts as a controlling factor in the extension of both the ‘predicatein-subject’ and the physical models to the metaphysical domain.
In what follows, I wish to isolate the logical and physical strands in the development of Leibniz’s thought, while at the same time paying attention to the anti-spinozism latent in both. My perspective here will be largely reconstructive and conceptual, rather than historical or chronological. I wish to consider the two lines separately, and then speculate as to the reasons why Leibniz should want to unify them within a single principle of individuation. I then wish to show that the same two lines of thought are present in Spinoza’s system, and to suggest arguments which Spinoza would have proffered (against Leibniz) for maintaining two distinct principles of individuation. One of these, the logical, as we shall see, gives rise to Spinoza’s doctrine of the attributes; whereas the other gives rise to the physico-ontological account of individuation delivered following E2P13.

2. The Logical Model

In the Discours de me ´taphysique 8, Leibniz argues that the concept of an individual substance must contain all of the predicates of the subject to which it is attributed. He adds (Discours 14, 46) that ‘‘. . . it is very evident that created substances depend upon God, who preserves them and who even produces them continually by a kind of emanation, just as we produce our thoughts.’’ This establishes a tight parallelism between the manner in which created substances are produced by God and our manner of conceiving them via subject and predicates. Although Leibniz freely utilizes the scotistic term haecceitas in the Discours, he relies strongly upon a refutation (whose origins date from the Disputatio of 1663) of scotistic realism: Leibniz and Spinoza are both agreed in denying the existence of genera and species outside the human mind (see E2P40Schol1 for Spinoza).[41] The parallelism between predication and the nature of things is derived from the fact that God continuously produces individual substances by a manner of emanation analogous to that by which we produce our thoughts (Discours 8, 40-41).
The transition from a theory of predication to a nominalistic and metaphysical account of the concept of substance requires in fact the identification of a certain proprium quid which is unique to each individual and which constitutes it independently of any reference to its predicates. Leibniz concedes that the actual specification of such a principle is impossible: ‘‘. . . it is impossible for us to have knowledge of individuals and to find the means for exactly determining the individuality of anything whatever.’’[42] This is an important concession, and one which, as Leibniz himself acknowledges in the Disputatio of 1663, threatens scepticism. Having agreed with the nominalists that genera and species cannot exist outside the mind, and with Suarez’s critique of Scotus, Leibniz concludes that the principle of individuation lies in both form and matter; but then goes on to concede that such a principle cannot be known by finite minds. The reason for this is easily seen. A cluster of monadic predicates (some of which are collapsed forms of polyadic predicates referencing other individuals)[43] will be actually infinite in number. Indeed, if the number of individuals in the universe at any specific time t(n) is infinite, then a subset of those predicates, the number of detensed predicates referencing t(n), will itself be infinite. This result lies at the base of Leibniz’s later claim that each individual, inasmuch as it constitutes a complete reflexion of the entire universe, is infinite and infinitely complex (see Discours 9, 41-42). The notion of an individual as infinite, as we shall shortly see, quickly comes into conflict with the second model of individuation.
Aside from its nominalistic roots, however, Leibniz’s logical conception of an individual falls back upon an arithmetic model — even pythagorean according to Belaval (1983). The third corollary of the Disputation of 1663 claims that ‘‘the essences of things are like numbers.’’ The analogy of individual essences to particular numbers remains unexplained, in perhaps much the same manner as Spinoza’s notion of a unique ratio of motion-and-rest which individuates bodies remains without analytic detail in the short treatment of physics following E2P13: Spinoza provides a placeholder for the subsequent development of physics, whereas Leibniz provides an undeveloped analogy at the root of his metaphysics (see Buchdahl 1969, 449-454). While in Descartes the nature of thinking substances is wholly different from that of bodies, and thus relies on an entirely different principle of individuation than that of extended substances, all individual substances for Leibniz (as for Spinoza) must fall under the same principle of particular individuation. In E3P6 and following, Spinoza transfers the physical model into the psychological domain by extending conatus from a physical doctrine to a theory of appetition, whereas Leibniz attempts to block the physical (and ultimately mechanistic) model from psychology by removing it from physics. This lies at the basis of his claim that the essence of individual bodies cannot be extension (see Discours 12, 44).
The above move, of course, implies that the principle of individuation for bodies is no less unknowable than that for minds, and threatens scepticism in physics in the absence of a working out of the arithmetic analogy. As long as he considers space and time as realities of the same order as that of individuals themselves, Leibniz can offer an alternative (and knowable) mode of individuation for bodies through their extrinsic properties of place and temporal coordinates: this he offers in the Confessio philosophi of 1673 (see Bitbol-Hespe´ries 1991, 82-83). But sixteen years later, beginning with On Copernicanism and the Relativity of Motion (1689), he has adopted a relational account of space and time which can no longer form the basis for the definitions of individuals placed in space and time. This compels him to argue that, ‘‘beyond the difference of time and of place, there must always be an internal principle of distinction’’ (Nouveaux essais II, 27#2, 196).
C. D. Broad has argued[44] that the logical account of individuation in the mature thought of Leibniz involves two distinct principles for characterizing the internal principle of individuation. The first asserts that to every individual there corresponds a set of non-dispositional facts of tenseless characterization which refer to each moment of its history. This principle, I suggest, arises from Leibniz’s suarezian form-matter account of haecceity, combined with the (mature) relational account of time. The second principle, not implied by the first, says that every dispositional fact about an individual is also contained in its internal structure. Everything which happens or could happen to an individual is the emergence of one of these facts from quiescence, or its consequent reversion into quiescence. The tenselessness of these facts, or the corresponding predicates which denote them, is reflected in Leibniz’s analogy of ‘windowlessness’ (see Monadology 7, 214), since causality is inherently a temporal process. Broad goes on to argue that such an account of the ‘predicate-in-notion’ is consistent with Leibniz’s claim that contingency exists in the universe. I shall return to this question later.
There are in fact two problems connected with this version of individuation. The one which we have already seen is that, while it asserts the existence of a unique principle for each individual, it also implies that such a principle is unknowable by any finite intelligence.[45] A second, but equally serious, problem is that, while every individual can be construed in a certain sense as a bundle of predicates (a` la Russell in the theory of descriptions), not every bundle of predicates should be thereby construed as an individual. The logical account of individuation is, accordingly, seriously incomplete at best, and requires supplementation from another model. It is to this model, the physical, that I now turn.

3. The Physical Model

Beginning about 1680 Leibniz is in possession of his new account of dynamics: the main details of his new concept of force and the critique of cartesian mechanism are both present in the Animadversiones of 1676. We saw in the preceding section that the logical analysis of individuation had at least suggested to Leibniz that individual bodies cannot be defined in terms of cartesian extension alone. As Bitpol-Hespe´ries (1991, 84) notes, ‘‘De la pre´sence des pre´dicats dans le sujet, on en arrive ainsi a` la succession des e´ve´nements pour une substance.’’ A further extension, once again by analogy rather than by argument, is the claim that all of nature is ‘full of life’.[46] Whereas in the earlier works of Leibniz life (and conatus) are conceived as a spiritual unity, the new conception of force is that of a physical reality, not a feature of extension per se, which lies outside the range of imaginational cognition and geometrical representation. As Bouveresse (1992, 90, translation mine) notes, ‘‘Force is the sum of the impetus, elementary drives or impulses (F=Smvdt); corporeal substance is defined as acting in its own right, and there is no longer a need for the premature intervention of spiritualistic metaphysics.’’
Hacking (1972, 138) is wrong, however, in claiming that ‘‘Active principle seems to have been Leibniz’s first deep thought about substance.’’ It is certainly true, as Gueroult (1967, 138-140) argues, that Leibniz’s dynamics contained the germ of the notion of ‘pre-established harmony’, since dynamical particles cannot interact in the sense of passing some property from one to the other. But the implications of this fact, and the characterization of a physical individual as a unity of force is a development certainly posterior to 1676; for even at that date, as BitbolHespe´ries (1991, 85-86) has shown, Leibniz was still distinguishing corporeal substances, moved directly by their union with divine substance, from substances endowed with reason and which contained an internal source of spontaneity. By 1680, in part through his reading of Huyghens’ mechanical experiments and in part through his critique of the cartesian principle of the conservation of momentum,[47] Leibniz is able to claim that an individual sensu proprio is a source of action through its possession of an internal force or conatus.
In A New System of Nature (1695), Leibniz describes the evolution of his notion of a life-force animating every individual in terms of a partial restoration of aristotelian substantial forms (139-140). It is at this stage of his development that he has arrived at a point close to Spinoza’s claim that ‘omnia animata sunt’. The scholastic underpinnings of ‘life-force’ as soul (anima) in a living thing, however, present a problem for him which is not present for Spinoza (whose concept has no such underpinnings). For, ‘‘. . . what becomes of these souls or forms at the death of the animal or at the destruction of the individual organized substance?’’ (New System, 140). Leibniz’s answer to this question is ambiguous at best, but reveals the uncomfortable position of the notion of conatus in his physical system:
This made me judge that there is only one reasonable view to take — namely, the conservation not only of the soul, but also of the animal itself and its organic machine, even though the destruction of its larger parts reduces it to a smallness which escapes our senses. . . (New System, 141).
Though the life-force of a corporeal individual is in a certain sense conserved, Leibniz goes on to argue that rational souls follow higher laws, in that their continuous existence makes them members of the ‘‘society of minds.’’ And, so despite the transplantation of the notion of a life-force or conatus into his dynamics, Leibniz retains the vestiges of a cartesian mindbody dualism:
In addition, by means of the soul or form there is a true unity corresponding to what is called the self [moy] in us. Such a unity could not occur in the machines made by a craftsman or in a simple mass of matter, howev er organized it may be; such a mass can only be considered as an army or a herd, or a pond full of fish, or like a watch composed of springs and wheels. Yet if there were no true substantial unities, there would be nothing substantial or real in the collection. (New System, 142).
Force has here been physicalized, but its role in the explanation of corporeal individuals remains vague.
In a letter to Huyghens dated 29 December 1691, Leibniz characterizes the cartesian quantity of matter (mv) as an inert or passive force, and argues that his own vis viva, an active power, is required for the explanation of physical processes. While this new force can be determined mathematically,[48] it fails to be a scientific object in any originative sense; for, like the continuum itself, it is not a substance, and thus requires a metaphysical foundation — primitive force, the formal and determinative element of an individual substance. The transition from kinematics to dynamics is thus, in a certain sense, also a transition from physics (as a geometry of space and time) to metaphysics; since the concept of force, while it may play a role in the former, is dependent upon the latter.
The notion of an individual as an active principle of unity is also central to the Monadology of 1714, but the same difficulties occur there as earlier. Arnauld had urged Leibniz for a clearer explanation of this notion of active principle. In reply to Arnauld (8 December 1686), Leibniz explains that not every object governed by physical laws counts as an individual.[49] If one places two parts of a dogul onto a brooch, the result is a rigid and throwable object, but it remains only an aggregate. Even a solid slab of marble is only an aggregate; since, says Leibniz, the mason can snap it in half, which proves that it is not a substance. One might object, of course, that a human being, or virtually any physical object, can likewise be snapped in half. Leibniz has developed the notion of a principle of active unity, but his model is bereft of any information as to how it can be applied to real objects in the physical domain. The transition from kinematics to dynamics remains hopelessly incomplete despite the ability of the integral calculus to calculate the values of the forces which are claimed to account for the individuation of bodies conceived as dynamic individuals.
Each of the two models of individuation which Leibniz proposes is logically independent from the other; and each, as we have seen, implies certain problems. Why, then, should Leibniz have employed the two models as coextensive — or as describing coextensive individuals? This question may be ultimately unanswerable, insofar as Leibniz most frequently deploys the two models in different situations and in different works. We hav e seen that he himself appreciated the difficulties implicit in each model: perhaps an underlying thought was that a combinatorial approach would weaken the difficulties taken separately. There is also Gueroult’s suggestion, mentioned above, that the concept of force which Leibniz develops out of Huyghens’ work suggests the ideality of relations (or the reduction of all polyadic predicates to monadic), which in turn is in some sense at the basis of the ‘predicate-in-notion’ model for individuation. But the basis for any union of the two models is at best a weak analogy in the absence of argumentation.[50] But, as we shall shortly see, combining the two models, rather than reducing the distinctive difficulties of each, contributes to a new problem of which Leibniz seems totally unaware.

4. Spinozistic Rejoinders

Gueroult’s analysis of Huyghens’ concept of force, and its obvious consequence that individuals conceived as unitary loci of forces cannot literally transfer properties from one to the other can be interpreted in two manners. From one perspective, exemplified partially by Hacking (1976, 145), it can be seen as an anticipation of Hume’s ‘constant-conjunction’ interpretation of causal nexus, one antecedent of which is Leibniz’s ‘predicate in notion’ model.[51] But there is yet another way of approaching the dynamic concept of an individual. A force in the modern sense (of which Leibniz and Spinoza are clearly both prophets) does not exist in isolation from an environment or field in which it operates. In the modern field theory model, what we call a force is simply a spatio-temporal equilibrium within a larger field. So that the notion of force is itself relative to, and parasitic upon, the field of which that force is a constitutive element. In short, in order to exist or operate, a force must function as part of a larger whole. But that in itself constitutes an inherent obstacle to combining the dynamic model with the logical one; for, in the physical sense, force itself is finitary, operating within the determined boundaries of the field of which it is constitutive.[52] We hav e already seen, however, that the logical model of individuation is inherently infinitary, via the leibnizean requirement that an individual in this sense must contain a complete and exhaustive set of its own state-descriptions in the absence of any external relationships.
It is now time to play the spinozistic card, and to argue that it resolves some of the difficulties which Leibniz faces. Seen as a locus of force within a larger field or environment, the correlates of leibnizean individuals are spinozistic modes. Disregarding the problem of the infinite modes and their status, we can see that for Spinoza a mode is a finite determination of a larger whole. Modes exist and operate in interaction with other modes, by which they are determined to exist and to act and which they in turn determine to exist and to act.[53] Modes by their very nature (whether they are modes of thought or of extension) operate in a temporal order which is interactive.[54] This is the basis of Bennett’s talk of a spinozistic ‘field metaphysics’.[55][56] Such a metaphysics makes particular extended individuals adjectival on regions of space, and reduces talk about regions of space to talk about the features of space (extended substance) without having to quantify directly over the regions themselves. Each individual is, of course, constituted by and constitutive of a particular region of space, which in turn is an individual of a still higher order (still finite), which in turn is an individual of a yet higher (but still finite) order. Note that this model makes all (finite) modes temporal, but only extended modes corporeal (tri-dimensional).
Leibniz’s claim that individuation cannot depend on external relations can now be relativized to Spinoza’s modal model. An external relation between any two or more finite modes at any giv en lev el of individuation becomes an internal relation holding for some individual at some higher level of org anization. So Leibniz’s claim that external relations do not exist becomes the claim that they are always reducible to higher-order properties of some individual. Spinoza makes the claim in this manner:
If we now conceive another individual thing composed of several individual things of different natures, we shall find that this can be affected in many other ways while still preserving its nature. . . Now if we go on to conceive a third kind of thing of individual things composed of this second kind, we shall find that it can be affected in many other ways without any change in its structure (forma). If we thus continue to infinity, we shall readily conceive the whole of nature as one individual whose parts — that is, all the constituent bodies — vary in infinite ways (modis) without any change in the individual as a whole. (E2P13Lemma7Schol: italics mine)
Of course neither the human nor any other mind can actually continue the part-whole composition to infinity, and the entire conceptual process remains a finitary one. The infinite individual here described must be conceived or constructed by other logical means, and is what Spinoza calls an ‘attribute’.
A spinozistic attribute is an individual in Leibniz’s ‘predicate-innotion’ sense of individual. Everything which is true of it refers to an internal state: it is, in Leibniz’s language, windowless. It can in principle be described adequately using two infinite sets of propositions: the first a set of descriptions of the individual modes (and hierarchies thereof) which constitute it, the second a set of nomological statements which describe the relations within it. The first set will contain existential claims which are tenseless with respect to the infinite individual but tensed with respect to its constitutive modes. The second set will contain wholly tenseless statements (Spinoza’s ‘laws of nature’). Readers may recognize in this an anticipation of the Hempel-Oppenheim cover-model for scientific explanation: to explain an event is to provide a deductive argument whose premises contain a statement of initial states plus a set of laws, and whose conclusion is the event itself.[57]
We can now also resolve Leibniz’s query about a ‘genuine’ individual and a lump of marble, which can be split into parts. This difficulty, as we hav e seem, forces Leibniz to claim that corporeal individuals are at best what I would call ‘quasi-individuals’ insofar as they do not display the unitary notion of individuation upon which he insists. This in turn reintroduces a species of cartesian dualism, which sees thinking things as ‘genuine’ individuals and corporeal objects as quasiindividuals. The distinction between individuals sensu proprio and quasiindividuals can be made within spinozism as well (though Spinoza employs no such terminology), but it is not attribute-specific as it is in Leibniz. The key, I believe, is to be found in Spinoza’s insistence above (E2P13Lemma7Schol) that individuals of any giv en order are composed of lower-order individuals diversis naturis: in short, the hierarchy of individuation is one of complexification and not simple combination. A human organism (which is corporeal) can be broken into parts, but these parts are individuals of different natures, whereas Leibniz’s marble, being a quasi-individual, can be broken into parts eaˆdem naturaˆ.[58] For the attribute-individuals, causality is a wholly internal story: causal chains occur within a given attribute, but never move from one attribute to another. So the internalization of relations holds for infinite individuals of the ‘predicate-in-notion’ sort (attributes), but never for finite individuals of the dynamic sort (modes).
Note that nothing which I have dev eloped above depends in any way upon attribute paralellism or the (in)famous E2P7. That the predicate-innotion model applies to substance conceived as an infinite whole is all that was needed. Spinoza’s further claim that there are an actually infinite number of ways in which it may be adequately applied[59] is a further claim, and one which, I believe, is not relevant to the general problem of individuation in either Leibniz or Spinoza.
We hav e seen that Spinoza’s implicit use of the two models of individuation resolves some of the difficulties which Leibniz faced. A further consequence of Spinoza’s use of the two models, however, embodies just the sort of result which Leibniz, in his desire to avoid spinozistic naturalism, would have sought to avoid. If the dynamic model for individuation applies to individuals per se, and not merely to corporeal or to mental individuals (to the exclusion of the other), then a notion of unitary force must be developed for the latter independently of the notion developed for the former. The physical model is outlined in the series of schematic lemmata introduced following E2P13, and the balance of E2 develops a geometry (or kinematics) for mental individuals (spinozistic minds). The account of conatus beginning at E3P6 provides the dynamic model for mental individuals. Spinoza is a committed physicalist here: though the psychological account of conatus is independent of the physical model adumbrated early in E2, he is not above ‘bootstrapping’ from the physical laws (i.e., inertia) to corresponding psychological laws. Perhaps the bootstrapping potential of E2P7 is what made it so attractive to Spinoza.[60]
A full-fledged conatus model, however, applied to minds means that the part-whole relationship applies between mental individuals of lower and higher orders. This may have been what Leibniz had in time when he claimed that Spinoza’s model leads to a ‘world-soul’ concept.[61] It also leads to the complete naturalizing of the human mind which Leibniz had been at such pains to avoid. And, with that naturalizing, conjoined with spinozistic parallelism, comes the psychological determinism to which Leibniz poses his own (and, in my opinion, ultimately incoherent) account of human freedom as an alternative. For, if the dynamic model is applied directly to the human mind as Spinoza does via his account of conatus, then the explanation of human behavior is no less a tale of causal explanation than is the physical model of interacting bodies. While Spinoza’s twofold account of individuation (modes and attributes) may resolve the logical problems in Leibniz’s efforts to provide a single and unified account, Leibniz’s own oft-declared intent of avoiding spinozism would certainly have sufficed to make it inherently attractive. This negative feature of Leibniz’s motivation may perhaps account in some considerable part for his failure to develop a unified model of individuation, or to provide a resolution of the difficulties which he himself found in the two models.
In this paper I have suggested that the logical analysis of problems within both Spinoza and Leibniz, and their contrasting attempted resolutions of these, can provide a fruitful means to coming to better understand the systematic thought of each thinker. Individuation is only one such area where Leibniz and Spinoza are both grappling with a set of important problems; but it is, I suggest, an area where we have much to learn from each and also from both.

A Selective Leibniz-Spinoza Bibliography

Translations from the text of Spinoza, where given, are my own. I prefer the edition of J. Van Vloten and J. P. N. Land [Benedicti de Spinoza opera quotquot reperta sunt. 3rd edition. 4 vols. The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1914] to that of Carl Gebhardt [Opera, im Auftrag der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften. 4 vols. Heidelberg: Carl Winters Verlag, 1925]. A new and critical edition of the Opera Postuma is under preparation in the Netherlands, and will probably resemble closely the Van Vloten and Land edition. References to the Ethica are internal. E2P13Cor is the corollary to Prop. 13 of Part 2. E3DefAff6 is Definition 6 from the Definitions of the Affects, an appendix to E3. Other abbreviations are Dem(-onstration), Schol(-ium), App(-endix), and Def(-inition).
References to the works of Leibniz in translation are to: G. W. Leibniz, Philosophical Essays, tr. Roger Ariew and Daniel Garber (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1989. The Disputatio de principio individui is the thesis which Leibniz presented in May of 1663 for his baccalaureate. It appears in Vol. 4 of the edition of C. G. Gebhardt, Die philosophischen Schriften von Gotfried Wilhem Leibniz (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1960), 17-26. A French translation of this early work by Jeannine Quillet, with notes and introduction, appears in Les Etudes Philosophiques 1979#1, 79-105. The Dissertatio de principio individui was written thirteen years later (April 1676) following Leibniz’s residence in Paris (1672-1676), one year after his discovery of the infinitesimal calculus.
Alcante´ra, Jean-P. (1996). ‘‘L’ontologie de la dynamique: Leibniz et la notion de substance a` un attribut.’’ In Pierre-Franc¸ois Moreau (Ed.), Architectures de la Raison (pp. 19-34). Fontenay-St-Cloud: ENS Editions.
Alexander, H. G., Ed. (1956). The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence. New York: Barnes & Noble.
Allen, D. (1983). Studia Leibnitiana: 11. Mechanical Explanations and the Ultimate Origin of the Universe According to Leibniz. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag.
Altmann, A. (1967). ‘‘Moses Mendelssohn on Leibniz and Spinoza.’’ In R. Loewe (Ed.), Studies in Rationalism, Judaism and Universalism (pp. 15-46). London: Routledge and Keg an Paul.
Ashworth, E. J. (1967). ‘‘Joachim Jungius (1587-1657) and the Logic of Relations,’’ Archiv fu¨r Geschichte der Philosophie 49, 72-85.
Bartuschat, W. (1981). ‘‘Spinoza in der Philosophie von Leibniz.’’ In K. Cramer, W. G. Jacobs, & W. Schmidt-Biggemann (Eds.), Spinozas Ethik und ihre fru¨he Wirkung (pp. 51-66). Wolfenbuttel: Herzog August Bibliothek.
Belaval, Y. (1948). ‘‘Le Leibniz et Spinoza de M. Georges Friedmann,’’ Revue de Me´taphysique et de Morale 53, 307-321.
_______. (1983). ‘‘Leibniz lecteur de Spinoza,’’ Archives de Philosophie 1983, 531-552.
Biasutti, F. (1990). ‘‘Reason and Experience in Spinoza and Leibniz,’’ Studia Spinozana 6, 45-72.
Bickmann, C. (1995). ‘‘Auf dem Wege zu einer Metaphysik der Freiheit,’’ Kantstudien 86, 321-330.
Bitbol-Hespe´rie`s, Annie. (1991). ‘‘Leibniz et la question de l’individuation.’’ In P.-N. Mayaud (Ed.), Le proble`me de l’individuation. Paris: Vrin.
Blackwell, K. (1985). The Spinozistic Ethics of Bertrand Russell. London: Allen & Unwin.
Bonjan-Peyron, C. (1983). Gene`se d’une illusion: La cr e`ation divine. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Universite´ d’Aix-Marseille.
Boss, G. (1990). ‘‘L’histoire chez Spinoza et Leibniz,’’ Studia Spinozana 6, 179-200.
_______. (1994). ‘‘Spinoza et Leibniz: l’histoire.’’ In Esquisses de dialogues philosophiques (pp. 234-257). Zurich: Editions du Grand Midi.
Bourel, D. (1981). ‘‘Leibniz et Spinoza: un essai de conciliation chez Moses Mendelssohn.’’ In Theoria cum Praxi (Vol. XX#2, pp. 104-109). Hannover: Studia Leibniziana.
_______. (1990). ‘‘La re´futation de Spinoza par Christian Wolff.’’ In O. Bloch (Ed.), Spinoza au XVIIIe sie`cle (Actes des Journe´es d’Etudes a` la Sorbonne (1987), pp. 219-224). Paris: Me´ridiens Klincksieck.
Bouveresse, R. (1988). ‘‘Omnia quamvis diversis gradibus animata sunt Remarques due l’ide´e d’animisme universel chez Spinoza et Leibniz.’’ In Rene´e Bouveresse (Ed.), Spinoza : Science et Religion (pp. 33-46). Paris: Vrin.
_______. (1992). Spinoza et Leibniz : l’ide´e d’animisme universel. Paris: Vrin.
Brunschvicq, L. (1951). Spinoza et ses contemporains (4th ed.). Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Buchdahl, Gerd. (1969). Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Science Cambridge (MA): MIT Press.
Burbage, F., & Chouchan, N. (1993). Leibniz et l’infini. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Caspar, P. (1985). L’individuation des eˆtres: Aristote, Leibniz, et l’immunologie contemporaine. Paris: Lethielleux.
Chazerans, J.-F. (1991). ‘‘La substance compose´e chez Leibniz,’’ Revue Philosophique de la France et de l’Etranger 181, 47-66.
Couturat, Louis. (1972). ‘‘On Leibniz’s Metaphysics.’’ In H. Frankfurt (Ed.), Leibniz (pp. 19-46). Garden City: Doubleday.
Craig, W. L. (1980). The Cosmological Argument from Plato to Leibniz. New York: Barnes & Noble.
Curley, E. M. (1972). ‘‘The Root of Contingency.’’ In H. G. Frankfurt (Ed.), Leibniz: Critical Essays (pp. 69-98). Garden City: Doubleday.
Dascal, M. (1990). ‘‘Spinoza and Leibniz: Language and Cognition,’’ Studia Spinozana 6, 103-146.
De Faria Blanc, M. (1996). ‘‘A Leitura hegeliana de Espinoza e de Leibniz,’’ Philosophica (Portugal) 1996, 95-110.
Foucher de Careil, E. (1857). Re´futation ine´dite de Spinoza par Leibniz, pr e´ce d e´ d’un me´ ´moire. Paris: Brie`re. [Animadversiones ad Wachteri librum de recondita Hebraeorum philosophia] _____. (1862). Leibniz, Descartes et Spinoza. Paris: Ladrange.
Frankfurt, H. (Ed.). (1972). Leibniz. Garden City: Doubleday.
Friedmann, G. (1962). Leibniz et Spinoza (2nd ed.). Paris: Gallimard.
Furth, M. (1972). ‘‘Monadology.’’ In H. Frankfurt (Ed.), Leibniz (pp. 99-136). Garden City: Doubleday.
Gagnebin, S. (1971). ‘‘La synthe`se leibnizienne.’’ In A la recherche d’un ordre naturel (pp. 337-360). Neuchatel: Baconnie`re.
Garrett, D. (1990). ‘‘Truth, Method, and Correspondence in Spinoza and Leibniz.’’ Studia Spinozana 6, 13-44.
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A Note on De Mairan and Spinozism Frederick Ablondi Hendrix College

Several years ago, I presented a paper to the North American Spinoza Society on Malebranche and Spinozism. The paper looked specifically at Malebranche’s correspondence with Dortous de Mairan.[62]For a brief review of the argument which I presented, the following is from the published version of that paper:
In 1713, just two years before his death, Malebranche received the first of four letters from Dortous de Mairan. The much younger de Mairan had recently read Spinoza’s Ethics, and was so impressed by its arguments that he wrote to Malebranche, begging the French priest to point out Spinoza’s errors, lest he (de Mairan) be forced to accept what he considered to be its unpleasant implications. Malebranche, who responded to each of the four letters, writes in his brief reply to de Mairan’s first letter that Spinoza’s error was that ‘‘he takes the ideas of creatures for the creatures themselves.’’[63] In his second letter, de Mairan switches course and takes up a defense of Spinoza, claiming in particular that Malebranche seems as much, if not more, guilty of the charge he had leveled against Spinoza, namely, failing to adequately distinguish between the idea of extension and extended bodies themselves. In his reply to this letter, as well as in his replies to the next two of de Mairan’s letters, Malebranche, in varying detail, does little more than repeat the objection expressed in the first response: Spinoza mistakes the ideas of material bodies for the bodies themselves, and in doing so, mistakenly claims that material extension is eternal, necessary, and infinite.[64]
I went on to discuss Malebranche’s criticisms of Spinoza, but rather than pursuing the force of these criticisms, I examined specifically Mairan’s claim in his second letter that it was Malebranche himself who fails to distinguish between objects and the ideas of those objects. I concluded that given (what I argued to be) the proper understanding of the nature and role of intelligible extension in Malebranche’s philosophy, he was able to successfully escape Mairan’s charge of Spinozism.[65]
In the discussion which followed my presentation, I was asked about the fate of M. de Mairan: did he ‘convert’ to Spinozism, or did Malebranche’s arguments persuade him of his ‘folly’? In the present note, I would like to respond (belatedly) to that question.
***
It will be helpful to start by looking at Mairan’s situation when he first writes to Malebranche in September of 1713. He begins by saying that he has been spending much of the last year concentrating on physics, studying works by Descartes, Pascal, and Malebranche himself. Then he confides that he recently came into possession of some of the works of Spinoza, though only The Ethics is mentioned by name. He describes what followed:
I read him attentively, and he impressed me. I have since
reread him, and I have meditated [about him] in solitude, and in what you call the silence of the passions; but the more I read him, the more I find him sound and full of good sense. In a word, I don’t know where to break the chain of his demonstrations. However, the agitation that his overthrow of my first and dearest ideas produces in me has sometimes made me resolve to abandon him. I want to forget him. But when one is deeply moved by the desire to know the truth, can one forget what has seemed so evident? On the one hand, I cannot envisage without compassion for humanity, and without sorrow, the consequences that follow from his principles; on the other hand, I cannot resist his demonstrations. [OC XIX,
852; G 68]
As noted, Mairan did not accept the charge Malebranche made against Spinoza in his first response, and the correspondence ends with him still unconvinced of Spinoza’s ‘error’. The question, then, is whether this can be taken as an indication that Mairan ‘converted’ to Spinozism.
Genevie`ve Rodis-Lewis has written on this question, concluding of Mairan that ‘‘en histoire il n’est gue`re spinoziste.’’ [66] She claims that the very fact the Mairan asks Malebranche to show him how to ‘‘break the chain of [Spinoza’s] demonstrations’’ is an indication that he suspects these demonstrations to be invalid, despite initial appearances. Further, she notes Mairan’s belief that the history of China must be subordinated to that of Egypt so as to reconcile certain chronological points in scripture — a decidedly un-Spinozistic stance, given its adherence to such a literal reading of the Pentateuch.[67]
Marjorie Grene, while not arguing that Mairan became a full-fledged Spinozist,[68] suggests the case is not so clear cut. In response to RodisLewis, she rightly points out that conversions, by their very nature, are often accompanied by doubt and apprehension in their initial stages. She also notes that Mairan’s interest in Spinoza sprung from his reading of The Ethics, not the Tr actatus theologico-politicus,[69] so Mairan’s adherence to a literal reading of Hebrew scripture is irrelevant to the question of his Spinozism. Further, there are notes made by Mairan in 1730 on his copy of the letters which indicate that he was still dissatisfied with Malebranche’s arguments against Spinoza. In the end, however, Grene feels that ‘‘the debate on the question of whether or not Dortous De Mairan is a
Spinozist. . . seems inconclusive.’’[70]
Other than the notes of 1730 mentioned above, there is nothing in
Mairan’s later writings which explicitly answers the question of his Spinozism. There is something, however, which is partially indicative of Mairan’s influences and of his character in general. Shortly after the end of the correspondence with Malebranche, Mairan began to make something of a name for himself in the French physics community. In 1715 (the year of Malebranche’s death), Mairan captured the Acade´mie de Bordeaux’s award for best memoir in physics; he would win the prize again in 1716 and 1717.[71][72] 1716 also saw the publication of what would be Mairan’s most recognized scientific treatise, his Dissertation sur la glace, and in 1718 he entered the Royal Academy of Sciences. The telling point is with regard to the Dissertation: Henry Guerlac notes that in the original edition, Mairan makes approving reference to Newton’s Optiks, something of a rarity at a time in the Academy when the Cartesian theory of optics was generally preferred to Newton’s. Based on the Mairan-Malebranche correspondence, Guerlac argues that ‘‘it is not difficult to infer that it was Malebranche who first called young Dortous de Mairan’s attention to the importance of Newton’s achievements.’’11
So was Mairan a Spinozist? A Cartesian? A Newtonian? Guerlac offers his judgement: Mairan ‘‘could far more correctly be called
Malbranchiste, for [he] was profoundly influenced by that most openminded and scienti[73]fically curious of seventeenth-century philosophers.’’[74]And if by ‘Malebranchiste’ one means ‘open-minded and scientifically curious’, this seems to be for the most part (i.e., excepting the Egypt-China matter) an accurate description of Mairan’s philosophical spirit. In the end, however, I think that it seems misguided to try to pigeon-hole Mairan at all. We can say with Marjorie Grene that, at least with regard to science, he exhibited an ‘‘independent intellectual attitude.’’[75] And we may further add that he comes across both in his correspondence with Malebranche and his work in physics as a man more concerned with discovering truth than one devoted to the dogma of a particular school.

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[1] . G. W. Leibniz, Te xtes ine´dits d’apr e`s les manuscrits de la Bibliothe`que provinciale de Hanovre, publie´s et annote´s par Gaston Grua (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1948). The notes on the Ethica are on 277-284.
[2] . Rene´e Bouveresse, Spinoza et Leibniz: L’ide´e d’animisme universel (Paris: J. Vrin, 1992). For the Latin text, cf. 289-294; the French translation (with Grua’s notes an abbreviations), 281-289; the commentary, 217-276.
[3] . A. Foucher de Careil, Leibniz, Descartes et Spinoza (Paris: Ladrange, 1862), 223-248. A new translation into French (without Latin text) by V. Carraud appears in Philosophie #2 (April, 1984).
[4] . Published under the title Re´futation ine´dite de Spinoza par Leibniz, with notes and French translation by A. Foucher de Careil (Paris; E. Brie`re, 1854).
[5] . See Bouveresse 217-230 for a summary of the rather contradictory published statements which Leibniz made concerning Spinoza, a species of public duplicity which certainly justifies the mistrust of the philosopher which Spinoza expresses in Ep72 (to G. H. Schuller, 18 November 1675).
[6] .           Letter to Justel, 4/14 February 1678, cited in L. Stein, Leibniz und Spinoza (Berlin: G.
Reimer, 1890), 307.
[7] .        Bouveresse (217-276) provides many references in his commentary on the general relation between the thinkers.
[8] .        Cf. G. Friedmann, Leibniz et Spinoza (Paris: Gallimard, 1946), 343-344.
[9] . See Lee C. Rice, ‘‘Paradoxes of Parallelism in Spinoza,’’ Iyyun #48 (1999); and also Lee C. Rice, ‘‘Individuation in Leibniz and Spinoza,’’ following, for bibliographical information.
[10] . See Bouveresse 224-230 for a summary of Leibniz’s published remarks on Spinoza’s theory of eternity.
[11] .      I am translating subjectum as ‘substratum’ to avoid the wrong associations. (Tr.)
[12] . I.e., pertaining to the essence of the thing. (Tr.) This is one of many examples where Leibniz has attempted to clarify or reinterpret the text. E1Def4 states: ‘‘By attribute I mean that which the intellect perceives of substance as constituting its essence.’’
[13] . E1Def5: ‘‘By mode I mean the affections of substance; that is, that which is in something else and is conceived through something else.’’
[14] . Note the absence in Leibniz’s summary of the spinozistic doctrine of an infinity of attributes. E1Def3: ‘‘By God I mean an absolutely infinite being; that is, substance consisting of infinite attributes, each of which expresses eternal and infinite essence.’’
[15] . E1Ax3: ‘‘From a given determinate cause there necessarily follows an effect; on the other hand, if there be no determinate cause it is impossible that an effect should follow.’’
[16] . This attempt to introduce Leibniz’s own principle of sufficient reason appears to be based upon a putative contradiction between E1P31 (which says that intellect is related to natura naturata) and E1P33Schol2 (which provides a critique of the sort of teleology required by the principle of sufficient reason).
[17] . The last sentence of this note is difficult, and the Latin careless. I take it to mean that the word ‘impossible’ is not to be used of God except in the very restricted way illustrated by the example. (Tr.)
[18] . See Bouveresse 239-241 for a brief discussion of Leibniz’s criticism and the putative contradiction. Leibniz either misses or ignores the fact that for Spinoza the human intellect is a part of the divine intellect, and not properly speaking an effect of it. So this criticism, as Bouveresse notes, is directed at Spinoza’s monism rather than at any logical contradiction between E1P17Schol and E1P3.
[19] . Leibniz appears here to be arguing against Spinoza’s frequent use of mathematical entities to illustrate relations between real objects, whereas on Spinoza’s own count these entities are only entia imaginationis.
[20] .      The second claim (dealing with Natura naturata) is underlined in the manuscript.
[21] . The last phrase (here following the semicolon) is underlined in the manuscript. Once again Leibniz’s criticism is directed at Spinoza’s monism rather than at the coherence of E2P3. Under Spinoza’s definition of it, what follows from the essence of substance is part of substance itself.
[22] .      animata — beminded, besouled. (Tr.)
[23] .      This entire sentence is underlined in the manuscript. For the similarities and differences between spinozistic and leibnizean ‘animism’ see Bouveresse 185-216.
[24] . This remark appears to be an adumbration of Leibniz’s own efforts to reduce external relations to properties (the doctrine that the monads are ‘windowless’), an effort which was nev er entirely successful. In Spinoza a relation which is external to one individual will be internal to higher-order individuals of which the first individual is a part. Gueroult regards Leibniz’s doctrine of windowlessness as an attempt to avoid problems which Leibniz finds in Spinoza’s own account of individuation following E2P13. See Martial Gueroult, Dynamique et me´taphysique leibnizienne (Paris: Belles Lettres, 1934), 180-194. Bouveresse 236-239 also provides a summary.
[25] .       consequentiae is crossed out and replaced by conclusionis in the manuscript.
[26] . Leibniz is correct as far as he goes. Spinoza appears to have two senses of ‘thing’, of which Leibniz’s remark denotes the most general. Often, however, the sense of res is in contradistinction to that of idea.
[27] . This appears to be a legitimate critique of Spinoza’s remark that universal knowledge arises from blurred sensory images (plural); since, as Leibniz notes, we can formulate a species-characterization whose extension is a unit set.
[28] . It is interesting to note that Leibniz summarizes Spinoza’s account of the three kinds of knowledge in E2P40Schol2 without any criticism. Does he perhaps view the distinction between the three kinds of knowledge as being less important and less problematic to Spinoza’s methodology than many subsequent commentators?
[29] .       This entire sentence is underlined in the manuscript.
[30] . Bouveresse notes (287) that this statement represents the first formulation by Leibniz of what he will later call his own parallelism in contrast to his interpretation of Spinoza’s parallelism (first stated at E2P7). The thinkers are of one mind in their opposition to occasionalism. See Bouveresse 244-247 for a detailed analysis.
[31] . Skinner makes a similar point in Beyond Freedom and Dignity about the James-Lang theory of emotion, of which Spinoza’s account is generally presumed to be the predecessor. Skinner notes that the running away and the fear are not causally related because they are simultaneous. If we take Spinoza’s ‘‘striving’’ as a mental event rather than as a physical one, however, Spinoza’s claim can be interpreted as a causal one.
[32] . What is common, of course, is that they are all and only the primitive affects. Leibniz may be suggesting here that, since desire is itself identified with conatus, its status as a primitive affect is questionable. A similar objection is lodged by Jonathan Bennett, A Study of Spinoza’s Ethics (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1984), 258-261.
[33] . Bouveresse (288) sees this remark as part of a more extended critique (which Leibniz will give in his comments De Deo of Spinoza’s notion of eternity), but the connexion appears difficult to see. Perhaps Leibniz is here attempting to introduce the notion of contingency as a component of our knowledge of future events, and thus avoid spinozistic determinism. His later attempts to avoid rigid determinism in his own ontology have been severely challenged by even Leibniz’s most sympathetic commentators.
[34] . E4P69: ‘‘The virtue of a free man is seen to be as great in avoiding dangers as in overcoming them.’’ In a certain sense this proposition illustrates Spinoza’s own lifestyle. He prevented the translation of the TTP into Dutch to avoid its accessibility to the vulgus, and was probably not entirely open when he met and spoke with Leibniz. The motto on his family coat of arms was ‘‘Caute’’ (‘‘Be Careful’’).
[35] . Leibniz appears quite correct in finding some obscurity in E4P72Schol, which deals with the modern highway robber paradox. For commentary and an effort at clarification of the scholium, see Lee C. Rice, ‘‘Spinoza and Highway Robbery,’’ Archiv fu¨r Geschichte der Philosophie, 1998.
[36] . Leibniz has already dealt approvingly with Spinoza’s account of (bodily) individuation in the opening comments on E2. His objection here is probably to the parallelistic argument for the individuation of the mind. Leibniz’s later development of the concept of mind as a ‘dominant monad’ was perhaps a reaction to the mind-body unity claim underlying Spinoza’s parallelism.
[37] . See C. G. Gebhardt, Die philosophischen Schriften von Gotfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 1960), Vol. 4, 17-26.
[38] .      This work was written thirteen years later, after Leibniz’s visit to Paris (1672-1676) and one year after his discovery of the infinitesimal calculus. For the early development and subsequent chronology, see Bitbol-Hespe´rie`s (1991), 79-81.
[39] . Animadversiones ad Wachteri librum. See Foucher de Careil (1857). A brief commentary and critique of Foucher de Careil is provided in Bouveresse (1992, 188-191). Wachter’s book, together with a complete account of Leibniz’s critique of it, is summarized in Friedmann (1962, 155-178).
[40] .               Reprinted in Oeuvres philosophiques de Leibniz, with introduction and notes by P.
Janet, 2 volumes (Paris: Ladrange, 1866); II, 570-572.
[41] . For details on Spinoza’s nominalism, see Lee Rice, ‘‘Le nominalisme de Spinoza,’’ Canadian Journal of Philosophy 24 (1994), 19-32.
[42] . Nouveaux essais sur l’entendement humain (Paris: Garnier-Flammarion, 1966), III, 3#6, 248-249.
[43] . See Discours 14, 47-48; and Hide´ Ishiguro, ‘‘Leibniz’s Theory of the Ideality of Relations,’’ in Frankfurt (1976, 191-214).
[44] . ‘‘Leibniz’s Predicate-in-Notion Principle,’’ in Frankfurt 1972, 1-18. Lycan (1972) and Ishiguro (1972) offer similar arguments.
[45] . Buchdahl (1969, 454-455) sees in this consequence an anticipation of Kant’s notion of noumenal reality.
[46] .      See Bouveresse (1992, 85-90).
[47] . For details of Leibniz’s theory of the conservation of mv**2, see Bouveresse (1988), Bouveresse (1992, 91-93), Buchdahl (1969, 415-424), Chazerans (1991), Friedmann (1962, 120-124), and Lycan (1972). It is also interesting to note that the development of a conservation principle for corporeal reality itself immediately postdated Leibniz’s first contacts with spinozism (1669-1679): see Friedmann (1962, 59-76).
[48] . It is in fact the integral of the inert forces. See Bouveresse (1992, 97-100) and Buchdahl (1969, 406-408).
[49] .       See Hacking (1976, 148-150) for a more detailed discussion of this correspondence.
[50] . The use of analogies in Leibniz’s extrapolation from physics to metaphysics is emphasized by Buchdahl (1969, 434-438), particularly for Leibniz’s principle of continuity, where Buchdahl claims that there is a ‘‘gap between the technical case which originally led to the idea of continuity becoming established, and its generalisation by extrapolation to a much wider field’’ (ibid., 435). I suspect that this is the case for the principles of individuation as well.
[51] .      Yet another, of course, is Malebranche’s occasionalism.
[52] . This is why Spinoza predicates conatus only of finite modes. While substance itself is an infinite force, its source of auto-determination is entirely intrinsic.
[53] .      See E1Def5, E1P28, and E2Def1.
[54] . The temporality of ideas in Spinoza’s model has been denied by some interpreters. I think that Michael Della Rocca’s arguments here are quite decisive. See his Representation and the Mind-Body Problem in Spinoza (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), esp. 44-67.
[55] .          See Jonathan Bennett, A Study of Spinoza’s Ethics (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1984), esp.
[56] -110.
[57] . I owe this insight to Edwin Curley. See his Spinoza’s Metaphysics: An Essay in Interpretation (Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press, 1969), 50-55.
[58] . This is also why the civil community or state for Spinoza is not an individual, but only a pseudo-individual; but that is another story.
[59] . I follow Bennett here in claiming that Spinoza meant what he wrote when he deals with ‘an infinity of attributes’, rather than those interpreters who claim that ‘infinity’ = ‘all there are’ = ‘2’.
[60] . I am here implicitly agreeing with Bennett’s claim that parallelism is a correlation between psychological and physical models, not between logical and physical ones, as Curley argues. I am also in at least partial agreement with Bennett that Spinoza’s argument for E2P7 is awful. Michael Della Rocca [Representation and the Mind-Body Problem in Spinoza (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 18-43] does succeed, however, in supplying an alternative argument which is more logically plausible than the alternative offered by Bennett (127-135).
[61] .      See his ‘‘Comments on Spinoza’s Philosophy (1707?)’’ in Ariew and Garber (272-281), and also Friedmann (1962, 225-230).
[62] .      The paper was given December 27, 1995 at the NASS meeting held in conjunction with the Eastern Division meeting of the APA in New York City.
[63] . OC XIX, 855; G 70. References to Malebranche’s works are to the Oeuvres comple`tes, 20 vols., Andre´ Robinet, dir. (Paris, 1959-66), referred to hereafter as ‘OC’, followed by volume number, page number. Passages of the Malebranche-de Mairan correspondence are from Marjorie Grene’s translation, contained in Malebranche’s First and Last Ctitics (Carbondale: Southern Illinois Press, 1995), and referred hereafter as ‘G’.
[64] . ‘‘Le Spinoziste Malgr e´ Lui?: Malebranche, De Mairan, and Intelligible Extension,’’ History of Philosophy Quarterly (April 1998), 191.
[65] . For those interested in more information on the correspondence, see Daisie Radner, ‘‘Malebranche’s Refutation of Spinoza,’’ in Spinoza: New Perspectives, ed. Robert W. Shahan and J. I. Biro (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1978), 113-128; and George S. Getchev, ‘‘Some of Malebranche’s reactions to Spinoza revealed in his correspondence with Dortous de Mairan,’’ Philosophical Review 41 (1932), 385-394. Joseph Moreau’s introduction to the Vrin edition of the correspondence (1947) provides some useful insights into Malebranche and Spinozism. Richard Watson’s ‘‘Foucher’s and de Mairan’s Critiques of Malebranche’s Beings of the Third Kind,’’ The Southern Journal of Philosophy XXXIV (1996), 125-134, argues against my conclusion in the HPQ article (op. cit.), claiming that ‘‘de Mairan does get Malebranche, and gets him good’’ (130).
[66] . Genevie`ve Rodis-Lewis, ‘‘Dortous De Mairan fut-il spinoziste?’’ Revue de me´taphysique et de morale 93 (1988): 165.
[67] . According to Rodis-Lewis, Mairan’s writings on this matter ‘‘montrent qu’il n’a pas e´te´ convaincu que la subordination de la Chine a` la civilisation e´gyptienne, qui avait instruit Moi¨se, est une fable. Quelle que soit sa since´rite´ dans son apparent retour a` une tradition chre´tienne, il n’est suˆrement pas spinoziste en histoire’’ (ibid., 171-72).
[68] . As has Paul Vernie`re. His conclusion on the matter is that ‘‘l’objectivite´ de Dortous de Mairan l’entreine jusqu’a` la conversion au spinozisme’’[Spinoza et la pense´e franc¸aise avant la r e´volution (Paris: Presse Universitaires de France, 1954), 279; quoted in Rodis-Lewis (ibid.), 166].
[69] . It is not entirely clear that this is true; all Mairan says is that ‘‘the works of S., especially his Ethics or his philosophy, came into my possession’’ (G 68, my emphasis). On the other hand, Mairan does specifically praise the ‘‘geometrical form of his work’’ (ibid.), suggesting that Mairan has only The Ethics in mind.
[70] .      >From Grene’s introduction to her translation, 64.
[71] . I am indebted for this and for much of the historical information which follows to Henry Guerlac [‘‘The Newtonianism Of Dortous De Mairan,’’ in Essays and Papers in the History of Modern Science (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977):
[72] -90].
[73] . Guerlac, 485. It should not be surprising to see Malebranche breaking ranks with the Cartesians; despite being firmly grounded in the Cartesian tradition, in physics — as in other areas — Malebranche went his own way, and was gracious enough to concede to a rival (as Newton was, with regard to their respective theories of color) if he became convinced of the other’s truth. This is in fact just what happened, as can be seen in the 16th E´claircissement in the 6th (1712) edition of Recherche de la v e´rite´. On this point, see Paul Mouy, ‘‘Malebranche et Newton,’’ Revue de me´taphysique et de morale 45 (1938): 411-435.
[74] .      Ibid., 487.
[75] .      Introduction, 65.














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