The expression in Leibniz

Author(s)

Tessa Moura Lacerda

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2006-01-20

Examining board members

Franklin Leopoldo e Silva; Marilena de Souza Chaui; Edgar da Rocha Marques; Luiz Roberto Monzani; Carlos Alberto Ribeiro de Moura

• Advisor: Franklin Leopoldo e Silva

Abstract

Expression is one of the most important notions of Leibniz\'s philosophy. The philosopher addresses it directly in some texts, however, more than an object of analysis, the notion of expression organizes and makes reflections about Leibnizian theology, ontology and epistemology converge. Leibniz is not the first to deal with expression; the originality of his approach lies in a mathematical interpretation of expression, which makes it possible to define it as an analogy of relations between expression and expresser. One thing expresses another, says Leibniz, when there is a regular and reciprocal correspondence between the two, or between what can be said of one and the other. Accordingly, expression presupposes analogy and harmony. Having defined the relation of expression in these terms, it is possible, at the theological or metaphysical level, to explain how God expresses himself in simple, absolute and infinite forms, which express themselves in general systems of phenomena or possible worlds, which are expressed in individual notions and do not exist outside them. At the ontological level, we shall say that individuals express God as a cause and the world which they are part of. These individuals, in turn, express themselves as phenomena that are unified by tho ught as bodies. The relation that defines the bodies and the relation between bodies express the ideal relations that individual substances maintain amongst themselves, the physical order expresses the metaphysical order. At the epistemological level, we shall say that our ideas express the ideas of God; we agree with God in the same relations. But to know these relations, the present expression in an idea has to be developed. The classification of ideas in Leibniz presupposes this progressive development that takes place as a gradual analysis: the ideas may be obscure or clear, these ones confused or distinct, these ones inadequate or adequate, and the adequate ideas may be the object of a blind or symbolic knowledge and of an intuitive knowledge, very rare. The scope of the notion of expression makes it possible to put heterogeneous orders into a relation and to show the convergence and similarity of different things. In this measure, we can relate such different things as characters and thoughts, hence Leibniz\'s quest for a universal language or Characteristic. (AU)