Lexicon Philosophicum: International Journal for the History of Texts and Ideas

Leibniz on Natural Piety: Toward a Conceptual Reconstruction

Miriam Aiello — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0200

The paper examines key transitions in Leibniz’s reflection on natural piety and the affective mechanisms underlying sensitivity to others’ pleasure and pain. In particular, through a comparison between two texts – Tit. I, De jure et iustitia and the Nouveaux essais – it focuses on: a) the inclusion of natural law within the scope of gnoseology, b) the terminological shifts that signal the extension of natural piety to the entire animal genus, following Leibniz’s abandonment of the Cartesian theory of the animal-machines, and c) the corresponding changes in the notion of moral personhood.

Imagination, Memory, and the Thread of Meditation in Leibniz’s Universal Characteristic

Kristijona Čerapaitė — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0200

The paper argues that Leibniz’s project of a characteristica universalis presupposes a theory of mental faculties. Although Leibniz does not explicitly develop a faculty psychology in this context, imagination and memory emerge as necessary for interpreting and manipulating characters. I argue that imagination mediates between signs and ideas, while the universal characteristic seeks to stabilise this relation by externalising reasoning in a system of symbolic representation, thus transforming memory into a structured, visual repository of knowledge. By situating the project within a broader account of cognition, the paper shows that the characteristica does not merely represent thought but reorganises it. It thereby reveals an implicit model of cognition that is constitutive of the operations of the mind, reorganising mental faculties within its framework rather than remaining merely auxiliary to them.

Le lien substantiel dans la « méditation secrète » de Leibniz

Irina Ionita — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0200

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”

Le concept du vivant chez Leibniz à la lumière de la controverse avec Stahl et d’autres textes contemporains

Pasquale Marino — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0200

This paper addresses the metaphysics of the living in Leibniz’s thought between 1709 and 1711, aiming to show that it must be conceived in hylomorphic terms through the distinction organic-vital, although Leibniz revisits the semantics of the animatum and the actuated through the doctrine of pre-established harmony.

English Title: Leibniz’s Concept of the Living in Light of the Controversy with Stahl and Other Contemporary Texts

Leibniz on the Illumination of the Agent Intellect

Amedeo Robiolio — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0200

How does Leibniz think of the relationship between God and the human intellect? Does he admit some form of divine illumination, or does his account of the intellect leave neither need nor room for any relation beyond the creation and expression shared with nonrational substances? Leibniz’s strong opposition to monopsychism and vision-in-God seems to suggest the latter. However, his commitment to the difference between sense and intellect being based on the creature’s ability to reflect, affords a more positive answer. Intellects are uniquely illuminated because in participating in divine reflection, they grasp the absoluteness of the divine essence through seeing their perspective as a perspective.

Editorial

Antonio Lamarra, Enrico Pasini — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0200

Pathology and Politics in Alcmaeon of Croton (5th Century B.C.)

Sergio Javier Barrionuevo — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0200

In Alcmaeon of Croton’s lemma, dating back to the 5th century, we encounter the use of two terms that, in other sources, are associated with the field of politics: ἰσονομία and μοναρχία. The interpretation of these terms poses the following question: Is there a ‘medical use’ of political terms, or conversely, is there a ‘political use’ of medical terms? Some scholars have debated these possibilities. In this paper, I argue that there is no ‘medical use’ of these terms before Alcmaeon, prompting an exploration of the intended significance behind the utilisation of these terms.

Physics and Civil Science in Leibniz’s Writings

Fiorenza Manzo — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0200

The article aims to provide a basic glossary of the lexical intersections between physics and politics in Leibniz’s writings and to offer an interpretative framework for understanding these intersections. The leading idea is that linguistic and lexicographical analysis discloses a structural relationship – manifesting at times as symmetry, at others as radical continuity – between the domains of physics and politics, and, consequently, between corporeal and civil structures and their respective operative models. Taking all elements into account, including the metaphors frequently employed by Leibniz, it is proposed that – to some extent – one may legitimately speak of an analogical mode of thinking underlying Leibniz’s approach to these two spheres. Furthermore, it is argued that this way of thinking is perfectly consistent with Leibniz’s metaphysical assumptions, global view of the universe, and method of inquiry.

Alle origini dell’archeologia filosofica

Francesco Ciocconi — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0200

The expression “philosophical archaeology”, which appears in the Lose Blätter zu den Fortschritten der Metaphysik, is a hapax within Kant’s corpus. While it undoubtedly shares certain features with the “archaeology of nature” that Kant develops in the context of natural inquiry, the origin of the expression remains unclear. Kant identifies philosophical archaeology with the “philosophical history of philosophy”, an expression he borrows from the systematic introduction to the Acta philosophorum by Christoph August Heumann, whose overall historical-philosophical perspective Kant also shares. In Heumann’s work, within a chapter on the origin of philosophy, there appears a reference to Thomas Burnet’s Archaeologiae philosophicae; an author whom Kant, moreover, cites repeatedly elsewhere. This paper aims to argue that Burnet is likely to be the actual source of Kant’s concept of philosophical archaeology. Beyond Heumann’s citation, there are many affinities between the two ‘archaeologies’: the investigation into the origins and the progress of philosophy, the emphasis on the ruins of the past and finally the practical orientation that characterizes the emergence of philosophy. This latter aspect may reinforce an interpretation of Kantian philosophical archaeology and the Preisschrift über die Fortschritte der Metaphysik that emphasises the notions of need of reason and practical-dogmatic metaphysics.

Englis Title: The Origins of Philosophical Archaeology: Christoph August Heumann and Thomas Burnet as Kant’s Sources

Giovanni Pugliese Carratelli storico globale dell’antichità

Antonio Lamarra — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0200

Between 2020 and 2024, a number of scholarly events took place and several publications were released to honour the memory of Giovanni Pugliese Carratelli, the great historian of antiquity, and to reflect on his teachings as well. In both cases special attention was paid to his view on the origins of philosophy, according to which this phenomenon – which was typically Hellenic – was intimately linked to the emergence of independent poleis from the ashes of the ancient Mycenaean kingdoms. Indeed, for Pugliese Carratelli – just as it was for B. Croce before him – the spirit of liberty was the true driving force of history, of which the Hellenes provided a memorable example.

English title: Giovanni Pugliese Carratelli, Global Historian of Antiquity. Reflections and Memoires (2020-2024)