L’évaluation critique du concept de monade de Béguelin à Kant

Abstract The Preisfrage proposed by the Berlin Academy in 1788 on the progress of metaphysics in Germany reflected, to some extent, the endeavor of certain academics who sought to reform Leibnizian monadology. This intention was also present in Kant’s Über eine Entdeckung, nach der alle neue Kritik der reinen Vernunft, durch eine ältere entbehrlich gemacht werden soll and in the drafts in which he would address the Academy’s question. This article aims to analyze Nicolas de Béguelin’s critical interpretation of the concept of monads, understood as representing the elements of natural reality beyond phenomena. In two of his memoirs published in the Academy’s yearbooks, Béguelin resolved this issue through an analogical use of the connotations of organic teleology, in order to formulate a hypothesis that would prove consonant with the requirements of experience-bound knowledge. Certain limited convergences between Béguelin’s views and Kant’s are then described and assessed.