On the General Characteristic

Abstract

The year 1679 was one of the most creative in Leibniz’s life and the last he was to enjoy under the patron who had called him to Hanover. In this year the detailed plans for two projects formulated much earlier were revived, and many studies written in preparation for their execution. These were the universal encyclopedia and the great apologetic work, the Catholic Demonstrations (No. 28).

For his encyclopedia as he planned it at this time, Leibniz chose the title Plus ultra (G., VII, 49–53), borrowed from Glanvill. Many of the preliminary drafts which Leibniz made for this work have been published in G., Volume VII, and in Cout. OF. The following selections (Nos. 24, 25, and 26) are arbitrary but give a conception of his plan and the state of his notions in logic. They may be regarded as belonging to the introductory section of the work, to be called ‘Initia et specimina scientiae generalis’, Nos. 24 and 25 belonging to the ‘Initia’ and Nos. 26 and 27 to the ‘Specimina’.¹The long lists of definitions on which Leibniz worked intermittently over a long period of time are not represented.

The following two selections are obviously closely related, the first discussing the origins and values of the general characteristic; the second, the general logical principles to be assumed as axiomatic in it.