On Compendia and Fictions in Leibniz’s Youth Thought

Abstract

In this paper I will try to elucidate the notion of fiction suggested by Leibniz in his Parisian period. This notion is clarified if we take into account the Leibnizian conception of symbolic knowledge as theoretical framework. The connection between Leibniz’s conception of fictions and that of symbolic thought is observed in the fact that he conceived fictions as abbreviations or compendia of speaking, thinking, discovering and demonstrating. With this in mind, we will see that fictions were thought as blind (there is no idea that corresponds to them), confused (we have a vague knowledge of the meaning of the expressions), analogous (we employ them as if they designate possible entities) and creative (the geometer must introduce them as suppositions) notions.