How did Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz respond to Spinoza’s ideas?

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Engraved portrait of Benedict de Spinoza by Friedrich Roth-Scholtz, showing Spinoza in formal 17th-century attire with a circular symbol in the upper left corner. — Benedict de Spinoza Benedict de Spinoza.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz did not merely react to Benedict de Spinoza; he developed his own metaphysical system as a deliberate rationalist alternative to Spinoza’s philosophy.1

While both thinkers belonged to the tradition of Continental rationalism, their fundamental views on the nature of reality diverged significantly:

Monism vs. Pluralism: Spinoza proposed a monistic worldview, arguing that the universe consists of a single, infinite substance he identified as God. In contrast, Leibniz advocated for a pluralistic metaphysics, positing the existence of an infinite number of individual spiritual substances he termed monads.1
Logical Frameworks: Leibniz distinguished between necessary truths of reason and contingent truths of fact, governed by the principle of sufficient reason. This contrasted with Spinoza’s view of the world as a timeless, completely determined logical system of causes and effects.1

Despite these differences, Leibniz shared with Spinoza a commitment to extreme rationalism, believing that true reasoning relies upon necessary, eternal truths to establish an indubitable connection of ideas.1