LEIBNIZ AND SPINOZA

 

On a trip to San Francisco, to visit my daughter Laura who wined and dined me to undeserved points, I bought this book in a small bookshop in Alameda. It is profusely underlined and highlighted, like all my books. I have been interested in Leibniz and Spinoza since my early teens and have recommended both, and philosophy in general, instead of the self-help books that those sitting below the salt are wont to read. Allow me a quotation from this book:

"Philosophy, as Spinoza understands it, does not peddle in temporary cheer, modest improvements in well-being, or chicken soup for the soul; it seeks and claims to find a basis of happiness that is absolutely certain, permanent, and divine. The principal -indeed the sole- of his mature philosophy, as expressed in his masterpiece the Ethics, is to achieve this kind of blessedness or salvation."

Mathew Stewart, The Courtier and the Heretic, Leibniz, Spinoza, and the Fate of God, W.W. Norton, 2006.