Michael Devaux (Livarot) Advancement & emendatio:
les projets de Bacon et de Leibniz
In 1694, Leibniz defines his
metaphysical project in the Réflexions sur l’avancement de la
métaphysique réelle, et particulièrement sur la nature de
la substance expliquée par la force, a French translation of the De primae philosophiae emendatione et
de notione substantiae. In the
following pages, the history of the concept of advancement from Bacon and
Glanvill to Leibniz is investigated. The notion moves from dignity to progress.
The reasons why the translation of emendatio by advancement is not sufficient lead the reader to look, with accuracy, at the
syntagma ‘real metaphysics’, used by Leibniz from 1691 on. The emendatio involves both ideas of progress and correction. The
latter is echoed in the ‘real’ metaphysics. Thus, the first
elements of the history of that real metaphysics, a formula that occurs until
1716, are presented here. As the translation of emendatio by ‘advancement’ and ‘real’
is disjunctive, I suggest a one-word translation with the French rétablissement.