The Question of Freedom in Terms of Spinoza and Leibniz and the Compatibilist Perspective

Abstract

Although the concepts of freedom of Spinoza and Leibniz were created in the era of the universality of the thesis of mechanistic determinism, the universality of which was undermined in the last century, the ontological argumentation of both philosophers remains valid and worth not only revision, but even comparison. I will consider two positions in favor of freedom: the Spinozian identification of freedom with knowledge and the Leibnizian defense of the principle of alternative possibilities. I will consider both positions from the perspective of compatibilist argumentation, pointing out that the understanding of necessity in the thought of Spinoza and Leibniz does not exclude the existence of freedom.