Beierwaltes Lecture - Prof. Maria Rosa Antognazza: 'God, Creatures, and Neoplatonism in Leibniz'

Prof. Maria Rosa Antognazza's Beierwaltes Lecture delivered 26 November in the Divinity Faculty's Runcie Room, brought together some aspects of the Platonic and Neoplatonic inheritance in Leibniz’s thought. It discussed some features of Leibniz’s reworking of this tradition with respect to his theory of the divine infinite, his conception of primary matter, and his introduction of the notion of metaphysical evil. The argument was made that the concept of creaturely limitation, interpreted according to a Neoplatonic blueprint, plays a pivotal role in these three notions, providing a key which unlocks fundamental aspects of Leibniz’s metaphysics.