We talked a bit on Ep 24 about Spinoza’s relationship to Leibniz, and here’s the first of a series of videos that gives more detail on that relationship:
To watch this on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmbGbo-oyKc
McGee’s introduction for the first three minutes or so just repeats biographical information we gave on the podcast. Quinton focuses on the metaphysics of the two figures, casting Spinoza’s view as radically unitary: everything is God, and any apparent division is some sort of misunderstanding. This follows my interpretation on the episode that the “attributes” (mind and body) and “modes” (individuals) can’t be considered part of his ontology, i.e. his list of things that exist, though certainly to give a full explanation of his metaphysics, you have to bring up these other things. From the second section (i.e. the 2nd video) of this discussion: “If God is infinite, He must be coextensive with everything.”
As the interview progresses (through the end of clip 2 and the first half of clip 3), Quinton goes into many of the topics we discuss on both parts one (ep. 24) and two (ep. 25, recorded but not yet edited/posted) of our Spinoza discussion, from pantheism, Judaism, freedom, ethics, and more. After that, we get a good review of Leibniz’s Monadology.
-Mark
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