Kupriyanov V.A. Russia in Leibniz’s Early Linguistic Researches (1689–1698): Towards a Project for the Development of Sciences and Arts in Russia
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/lp.jvolsu.2025.3.6
Viktor A. Kupriyanov
Candidate of Sciences (Philosophy), Senior Researcher, Saint Petersburg Вranch of the S.I. Vavilov Institute for the History of Natural Science and Technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Universitetskaya Emb., 5B, 199034 Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0757-3752
Abstract. The article is devoted to the early stage of linguistic research by the German philosopher, mathematician, and statesman G.W. Leibniz, which falls on 1689–1697. The author describes the history of the origin of Leibniz's interest in Russia and China – two cultures that were opposite to Europeans – and shows the role that Leibniz's linguistic and historical studies played in this. Using the methods of source search and historical reconstruction, the author analyzes Leibniz's correspondence relating to this period of his biography. Based on the analysis of Leibniz's correspondence, the author reconstructs the network of contacts that Leibniz built in order to realize his linguistic and ethnographic interests related to the peoples living in Russia. The article describes Leibniz's relations with a number of outstanding figures of the late 17th century, contacts with whom he built in order to obtain the information he needed about Russia and Russian-Chinese relations: the article describes Leibniz's relations with members of the Jesuit mission in China, with the Polish Jesuit A. Kochański, with the burgomaster of Amsterdam N. Witsen, and other lesser-known personalities of that time. As a result of the research, the article indicates that before the "Great Embassy" of 1697–1698, Leibniz used the services of various intermediaries to obtain information about Russia, to whom he turned for help. Only during the "Great Embassy" did he manage to establish his first direct contacts with people from Russia, in particular, with Peter Lefort. It is shown that of all the connections that Leibniz built in 1697–1698, the most productive for him were contacts with Nicolaes Witsen, who was the first to provide him with the desired specific ethnographic and linguistic material. The article reconstructs the history of the relationship between Leibniz and Witsen and provides a modern assessment of them. The article sheds light on little-known facts from Leibniz's biography and provides an understanding of the genesis of his plan for the development of sciences and arts in Russia.
Keywords: Leibniz, China, linguistics, early modern philosophy, Peter I, Witsen, Kochański.
Citation. Kupriyanov V.A. Russia in Leibniz's Early Linguistic Researches (1689–1698): Towards a Project for the Development of Sciences and Arts in Russia. Logos et Praxis, 2025, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 46-61. (in Russian). DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/lp.jvolsu.2025.3.6
Russia in Leibniz’s Early Linguistic Researches (1689–1698): Towards a Project for the Development of Sciences and Arts in Russia © 2025 by Viktor A. Kupriyanov is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
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