The Question of God

Paper Summary:

This paper endeavors to pit Leibniz and Spinoza against each other "with the existence of God as the arena and words such as "substance," "nature," "free will" and "perfection" personifying weapons of choice. How these weapons are wielded proves the essence of this debate as well as validates Leibniz's advantage over Spinoza.

From the Paper:

"Before demonstrating the superiority of Leibniz's arguments over Spinoza's theories, it is necessary to provide a summary of each player's platform. Leibniz believed that God and the universe were distinct from one another. With the influence of Pythagoras weighing heavily in his arguments, Leibniz deduced that "Perhaps only one thing is conceived independently, namely God himself" and also nothing, or absence of being. This can be made clear by a superb analogy . . . [Leibniz then proceeds to elaborate on Pythagoras' theory that numbers were the quintessential truths, and that the universe in its entirety was in accord with itself, and insists:] I shall not here go into the immense usefulness of this system; it would be enough to note how wonderfully all numbers are thus expressed by means of Unity and Nothing. But although there is no hope in this life of people being able to arrive at the secret ordering of things which would make it evident how everything arises from pure being and nothingness, yet it is enough for the analysis of ideas to be continued as far as is necessary for the demonstration of truths." "

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