Per una teoria delle origini naturali del linguaggio. Da Leibniz a Vico

This article places G. W. Leibniz’s theory of the origins of language within the framework of the history of linguistic doctrines between the 17th and 18th centuries proposed by Paolo Rossi in his celebrated essay Barbarism and Language (1979). Distancing himself from both the conventionalism of the Aristotelian-scholastic tradition and the mystical naturalism of Jakob Böhme and other authors, Leibniz defends a point of view close to that of Epicurus and his recent interpreter Pierre Gassendi. In this way, Leibniz paves the way for a fully secularized historical conception of language, which will influence the development of language comparativism from the late 18th century onward. Finally, a comparison is offered with the kindred positions advocated by G. B. Vico in the Scienza nuova of 1744.