Band 43  Heft 1  2011 © Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart Studia Leibnitiana Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Philosophie und der Wissenschaften Leibniz Citizen of the Republic of Letters: Some Remarks on the Interconnection Between Language and Politics By CRISTINA MARRAS (ROMA) 1. Language and Politics “It was characteristic of Leibniz to try to reconcile apparently conflicting ideas, to take from each kind of thought that which was soundest and to synthesize it with the seemingly incom- mensurable truths of other systems” 1 . With this spirit, Leibniz, as a scientist, a linguist and a politician was actively engaged in the circulation of ideas and in the scientific debates depicted in the Respublica Literaria 2 . Through his large correspondence, writings and projects, his multiform experience and encyclopaedic competences contributed in many ways to the intellectual and political life of his time. There is one aspect of these interrelated interests and studies that seems to play a strategic role in the achievement and the reinforcement of one of his main aims – the marriage between theoria and praxis 3 , that is, the relationship 1 See P. Riley: “Introduction”, in: P. Riley (ed.): The Political Writings of Leibniz, Cambridge 1972, p. 2. 2 The European scenario is described in P. Dibon: Regards sur la Hollande du siècle d’or, Napoli 1990, in part. pp. 153-170 and pp. 171-190; for the vocabulary of the République des Lettres see: M. Fattori (ed.): Il vocabolario della République des Lettres. Terminologia filosofica e Storia della Filosofia. Problemi di Metodo, Atti del Convegno Internazionale in Memoriam di Paul Dibon, Napoli 17-18 maggio 1996, Firenze 1997. Respublica Literaria is actually a metaphor, which his first attestation is dated 1417, in a letter of Francesco Barbaro to Poggio Bracciolini, and thus diffused among the scholarly community, this is for example the position of H. Bots/F. Waquet: La République des Lettres, Paris 1997, but see also M. Fumaroli: ‘‘The Republic of Letters’’, in: Diogenes, 143 (1988), pp. 129-154 who attributes to Erasmus the first attestation. 3 ‘‘Theorici Empiricis felici connubio conjungirt’’ said Leibniz in “Grundriß eines Bedenckens von aufrichtung einer Societät in Teütschland zu auffnehmen der Künste und Wißenschaften, 1671”; A IV, 1, 536. See also “Consultatio de Naturae cognitione, 1679”; A IV, 3, 870: ‘‘Usus seu Finis contemplandi consistit in Praxi ad Vitam utili, seu solutione Problematum, quibus indigemus’’. The complete title of this text, with several cancellations and corrections made by Leibniz, is very interesting: it is in fact a sort of compendium of the Leibniz’s program: Consultatio de Naturae cognitione ad vitae usus promovenda instituendaqve in eam rem Societate (Germana, qvae scientias artesqve maxime utiles vitae nostra lingva describat, patriaeqve honorem vindicit). Urheberrechtlich geschütztes Material. Jede Verwertung außerhalb der engen Grenzen des Urheberrechtsgesetzes ist unzulässig und strafbar. Das gilt insbesondere für Vervielfältigungen, Übersetzungen, Mikroverfilmungen und die Einspeicherung und Verarbeitungen in elektronischen Systemen. © Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2012