Abstract

Leibniz's plan to construct an ars characteristica has been known from its logical and historical aspect as a „misconception“ and as another futile effort of a whole era respectively. Our approach will be from a different point of view, making use of a certain model-theory in philosophy of science. Then the comparison between Leibniz's own plans and the Chinese script which he himself used so often as a model can here be taken seriously. It will be analysed in how far this non-alphabetic script could have possessed a possible explanatory function for the problems emerging in his own project