Leibniz and the Three Degrees of Infinity

In these remarks on Ohad Nachtomy’s account of Leibniz’s philosophy of the infinite in his recent book, Living Mirrors, I focus on his suggestion that living creatures be interpreted as exemplifying the second of the three degrees of infinity that Leibniz articulates in 1676, as things which are infinite in their own kind. For the infinity characterizing created substances cannot be the highest degree, which is reserved by Leibniz for the divine substance, while Nachtomy sees the lowest degree as applicable only to “entia rationis such as numbers and relations”. Against this, I argue that the lowest or syncategorematic infinite applies to any multiplicity or magnitude that is greater than any assignable, so that something further can always be added; whereas the second degree applies to the divine attributes or perfections, which are maximal in that nothing further of that kind can be added.