Leibniz: musica e metafisica

Leibniz's interest for music is not simply determined by his encyclopedic attitude, but is deeply rooted in his Metaphysics. However, his writings on music and on the nature of sound has gathered very limited interest by the majority of scholars and commentators. Studies on his works have been conducted mainly by musicologists and historians of science, where it has never clearly emerged the role music has had in Leibniz's philosophy. The present work aims at highlighting the very meaning assigned to music in the Leibnizian system, where music represents the only possibility to achieve the authentic symbiosis of the diverse perceptive dimensions of a spirit – the highest harmony between empirical perception and reason. The close connection between his most original and interesting musical ideas and the evolution of his works from Mechanicism to Substance Metaphysics – development which forms the object of a thorough analysis in this research – further shows the crucial relation between Music and Metaphysics in Leibniz.