Conoscenza simbolica

What are the essential features of symbolic cognition? This study examines Christian Wolff’s theory of cognitio symbolica on the basis of ist late scholastic, Cartesian and Leibnizian sources. ‘Internal speech’ in Wolff’s conception becomes an internal reproduction of conventionally used external speech. The expression ‘mental speech’ ceases to be a mere metaphor: symbolic cognition is only experienced when the mind soundlessly scans words or visualises symbols without imagining the object symbolised. Even the cognitive achievements ascribed by the Cartesians to pure reason are attributed to this form of cognition. But the debates of the 1720s about pre-stabilised harmony demonstrate how closely the conception of the linguistic character of thought was linked to the question of the relationship between body and soul. Compared with the opinions of opponents of Wolff’s philosophy, Wolff’s determined assertion of a ‘dependence of the use of reason on the use of speech’ shows his historical and theoretical originality.