The Reception of Leibniz’s Notion of Symbolic Knowledge: The Case of Charles. S. Peirce’s Conception of Formal Sciences

JAVIER LEGRIS

MÜNSTER

Workshop; Theory of Cognition - Between Spinoza, Leibniz and Leibniz reception; 2022

LEIBNIZ FORSCHUNGSSTELLE, WWU MÜNSTER

Theexistence of links between Peirce’s theory of signs and Leibniz’s arguments in favour ofsymbolic knowledge is beyond doubt. The aim of this talk is to place Peirce’s thought in the tradition of symbolicknowledge in formal sciences initiated by G. W. Leibniz. The starting point iscriticism to the Cartesian notion of intuition in Peirce’s early thinking. Hereafter, the paperwill focus on Peirce’s notion of iconicity according to thetheory of signs, and its role in the characterization of formal sciences. Thisnotion of iconicity will be related to the subrogative and ecthetic function of symbolic knowledge, but theessential analytic function of icons will be stressed too. On this basis, itwill be discussed to what extent Peirce’siconic conception of formal sciences goes beyond the tradition of symbolicknowledge.