ARTICOLI / 16 / Michel Dupuis /
The deep interest of German and French Aufklärung philosophers is well known. In particular, Malebranche, the Catholic, and Leibniz, the Protestant, manifested their intellectual curiosity in a sophisticated way: the 1707 “Entretien d’un philosophe chrétien et d’un philosophe chinois sur la nature et l’existence de Dieu” of Malebranche and the Correspondence of Leibniz with M. de Rémond, and his own commentaries about Malebranche’s Entretien, constitute two steps of a dialogue about the content of Old Chinese wisdom and about the method of reading and interpreting that content in the perspective of intercultural and oecumenical integration. The notion of “li”, central in the Chinese context, is of particular relevance in this hermeneutical debate: how can we comprehend the notion and, more radically, how can we purify its core signification, going beyond tradition and traditional commentaries, and before any Christian dogmatic appropriation? Hence, Leibniz’ program: to give a good signification to old Chinese dogmas.
