From owner-cse584-sp07-list@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Fri Mar 30 11:17:59 2007 Received: from ares.cse.buffalo.edu (ares.cse.Buffalo.EDU [128.205.32.79]) by castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU (8.13.6/8.12.10) with ESMTP id l2UFHxwt025955 for ; Fri, 30 Mar 2007 11:17:59 -0400 (EDT) Received: from front1.acsu.buffalo.edu (upfront.acsu.buffalo.edu [128.205.4.140]) by ares.cse.buffalo.edu (8.13.6/8.13.6) with SMTP id l2UFHoFX073534 for ; Fri, 30 Mar 2007 11:17:50 -0400 (EDT) Received: (qmail 25060 invoked from network); 30 Mar 2007 15:17:50 -0000 Received: from mailscan5.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.6.137) by front1.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 30 Mar 2007 15:17:50 -0000 Received: (qmail 29681 invoked from network); 30 Mar 2007 15:17:49 -0000 Received: from deliverance.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.57) by front2.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 30 Mar 2007 15:17:49 -0000 Received: (qmail 14417 invoked from network); 30 Mar 2007 15:17:36 -0000 Received: from listserv.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.35) by deliverance.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 30 Mar 2007 15:17:36 -0000 Received: by LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 14.5) with spool id 4234392 for CSE584-SP07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU; Fri, 30 Mar 2007 11:17:36 -0400 Delivered-To: cse584-sp07-list@listserv.buffalo.edu Received: (qmail 209 invoked from network); 30 Mar 2007 15:17:10 -0000 Received: from mailscan1.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.6.133) by listserv.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 30 Mar 2007 15:17:10 -0000 Received: (qmail 10675 invoked from network); 30 Mar 2007 15:17:08 -0000 Received: from castor.cse.buffalo.edu (128.205.32.14) by smtp1.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 30 Mar 2007 15:17:08 -0000 Received: from castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU (rapaport@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU (8.13.6/8.12.10) with ESMTP id l2UFH8RJ025927 for ; Fri, 30 Mar 2007 11:17:08 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from rapaport@localhost) by castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU (8.13.6/8.12.9/Submit) id l2UFH8cL025926 for cse584-sp07-list@listserv.buffalo.edu; Fri, 30 Mar 2007 11:17:08 -0400 (EDT) X-UB-Relay: (castor.cse.buffalo.edu) X-PM-EL-Spam-Prob: : 7% Message-ID: <200703301517.l2UFH8cL025926@castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU> Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2007 11:17:08 -0400 Reply-To: "William J. Rapaport" Sender: "Philosophy of Computer Science, Spring 2007" From: "William J. Rapaport" Subject: SPINOZA AND LEIBNIZ To: CSE584-SP07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Precedence: list List-Help: , List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Owner: List-Archive: X-UB-Relay: (castor.cse.buffalo.edu) X-DCC-Buffalo.EDU-Metrics: castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU 1335; Body=0 Fuz1=0 Fuz2=0 X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.0 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00,SUBJ_ALL_CAPS autolearn=no version=3.1.7 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.7 (2006-10-05) on ares.cse.buffalo.edu X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.88.6/2965/Thu Mar 29 19:03:35 2007 on ares.cse.buffalo.edu X-Virus-Status: Clean Status: R Content-Length: 1094 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Subject: SPINOZA AND LEIBNIZ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ We've talked about Leibniz's role in the history of computing, and I briefly mentioned Spinoza's "double-aspect" view of the relation of mind to brain, when we were discussing Colburn's theory of the nature of software. Both Leibniz and Spinoza were "rationalist" philosophers, roughly philosophers who believed that reason was the best way to arrive at truth. (The third major rationalist philosopher, all of whom lived around the 17th century, was Descartes.) An interesting discussion of a meeting between Leibniz and Spinoza just appeared in The New York Review of Books. Although the article is not directly relevant to the philosophy of computer science, I thought that some of you might find parts of it interesting: Margalit, Avishai (2007), "The Lessons of Spinoza", New York Review of Books 54(6) (12 April): 71-74. http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~rapaport/Papers/Papers.by.Others/margalit07-LzSp-nyrb.html