History of Philosophy Workshop: Anat Schechtman (University of Texas at Austin), “Leibniz (and Aquinas) on Qualitative Infinity”

Abstract: Leibniz holds that God is the ens perfectissimum, an absolutely perfect being, who possesses all perfections to the highest degree. He also holds that perfections are simple, positive, maximal, and metaphysically prior to imperfections. It follows that their infinity cannot be that of quantities, whose infinity is “formed by the addition of parts” (NE II.vxii). In what sense, then, are perfections infinite? I propose to answer this question by drawing on a historical precedent: Aquinas’s account of qualitative degrees. At its core is a relation Aquinas calls ‘participation,’ which holds between a simple, positive, maximal quality (e.g., unqualified whiteness) and a subject (e.g., snow). I reconstruct Aquinas’s account, show that it fits with Leibniz’s views about perfection, and use it to formulate Leibniz’s theory of the infinity of perfections (as well as the finitude of imperfections) and, concomitantly, the infinity of God.