Le lien substantiel dans la « méditation secrète » de Leibniz

Abstract

Leibniz’s introduction of the concept of vinculum substantiale in his correspondence with Des Bosses aims to provide a conceptual foundation for the substantial character of bodies within the monadological theoretical context, and initially to account for the Eucharistic Transubstantiation. In his Latin thesis on The Substantial Bond and the Composite Substance according to Leibniz (1893), Blondel pays particular attention to a passage that Leibniz wrote while preparing the letter of February 15, 1712, which he calls “Leibniz’s secret meditation”. This article revisits this passage – rarely studied for its preparatory function – as Leibniz’s ideas laboratory.

English Title: The Substantial Bond in Leibniz’s “Secret Meditation”