Babette CHABOUT-COMBAZ
La théorie de la connaissance historique de G.W. Leibniz : autour des Nouveaux essais sur l’entendement humain
Institution : Université Paris Diderot
Promotion : 2017
Field of Study : Humanities, Arts, Letters and Literature
Research Unit :
Doctoral School :
Savoirs scientifiques : épistémologie, histoire des sciences, didactique des disciplines
Thesis Description :
My thesis aims to examine the possible influence of the historiographical practice of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) on his metaphysics. First, the study of his correspondence with “historians” -broadly construed- enables me to define the semantic field of history and describe the development of Leibniz’s historiographic method. Then, I study Leibniz’s own published and manuscript historical works, in order to analyse his implementation of historical concepts as well as his specific approach to writing history, in order to highlight the epistemological issues of his narrative choices. Finally, his natural history is studied as a paradigm of application of his historical method.