The purpose of reason and the historical and legal destiny of humanity in Suárez (1548-1617) and Leibniz (1646-1716)

Abstract

For both Suarez (1548-1617) and Leibniz (1646‑1716), politics and science cannot escape questioning the finality of the use of reason. From their point of view, the unity of humankind within the teleological system of nature is seen as a species for which Providence has devised a specific plan. From a historical and theological perspective, humanity’s destination, which goes beyond nature’s own work, corresponds to the promotion of reason’s finality. Thus, for our two authors, the thesis of the specific unity of humanity and the rights associated with it mediates the question of the raison d’être of reason (whether through politics, science or law), i.e. the finality of the very presence of reason in a finite being.