Laws of Nature

In November 1676, three months before Spinoza’s death, he was visited by the young Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Leibniz, who was thirty years old at the time, arrived in The Hague for the specific purpose of meeting Spinoza. They spent three days together in intense conversation. According to philosopher Matthew Stewart, “the meeting with Spinoza was the defining event of Leibniz’s life.” Although Leibniz would later publically disavow that influence, the outcome was the recognition that a rational universe governed by the laws of nature held the keys to understanding the natural world. ¹