I'd love it if you would. If you hadn't offered I would have got around to it eventually....in a year or so.

Lol Arjen, just like me writing an intro to Pierce or Saussure

Lol, busy lifes can do that, huh?

If this is a vote of yes, we'll get this philosopher added. Please start your introduction and I'll get this philosopher added to the mix. Thank you!

I fully agree! The Leibniz-Spinoza conversation is perhaps the greatest philosophical discourse in history, or one of an elite few. One can't have one without the other.

Cool thanks!... I tried replying earlier but my message was too short it wouldn't let me. I'll start the Intro, i'll do Life and Achievements and a bit on the Monadology, they're the only bits i really know, i skimmed over the Spinoza letters so if anyone else wants to add more that would be great

As far as I know it was on theological issues that he and Spinoza really disagreed, and if I'm not mistaken Leibniz had a god proof.

As far as talking about his life it might be worth mentioning his contribution to mathematics, being the first two Europeans to develop calculus.

Ah yeah Spinoza was the monist? and Leibniz didn't like this idea because it makes no room for free will? Yes Lebniz certainly does talk a lot about God, although from memory his God is more a 'philosopher's God', similar to the first un-caused cause, the thing that set the initial starting condition of all the universe, and then leaves it to take care of itself. A kind of God that i think makes most logical sense over the Judeo-Christian, or the traditional tri-omni version.

Hmmm.. might be a bit of writing to do. I might do the Life and Achievements quickly to get it started, maybe the Monadology, and then people can add or suggest as they like. It's not easy approaching Leibniz because he didn't really publish many fully-finished works.

Aye i'll do maths, physics, engineering, philosophy... one thing i like about him is how he was a bit of an all-round genius, and his mathematical concepts spill over into his philosophy and vice-versa.. Feel free to suggest or add more

If you need a place on the forum to save a draft, use the blog feature and then save the blog as a draft and then once it's completed, you can just copy it to the correct forum, then of course delete the blog draft upon completion. In the meantime we may try to find another method of enabling this on the forum.

Thank you!

It wasn't monism as such (I think) but Spinoza's view that there really were no contingent propositions, and that all propositions were necessary truths, and his determinism that implied that there was no free will. David Hume called this, Spinoza's "hideous hypothesis". Of course, we should also remember that although Spinoza thought that free will was a superstition, he was a great advocate of freedom, and the last chapter of his Ethics is called, "Of Human Freedom". He also believe that God was free.

For many reasons, I have only gained more respect for L. I remember long ago that Pound put Leibniz at the top, but I didn't get it, although I had at that time some exposure to L. L. was an all around genius. Here's an interesting video.
YouTube - Britians Loche vs. Liebniz

If there were no monads, Spinoza would be right.--Leibniz

Was Ezra Pound supposed to have been a philosophical authority? Was that before or after he went nuts? But, of course, that Pound extolled Leibniz (just as Pound extolled Mussolini) is not evidence that Leibniz was not great. Although there is a temptation to think so, I will admit.

Pound was hardly a perfect man, but not exactly unexposed. If you don't like Pound, that's fine. I wish ol Pound didn't get caught up in anger and righteousness. He's a great poet, and an interesting character generally. You don't like the philosophy-poetry connection, I think. For me, it's something obvious. Metaphors everywhere....