Add to ORKGThe article aims to describe the several meanings of friendship by Leibniz; starting from the convinction that the person is the root of friendship, Leibniz distinguishes between person and “brutus” while laying the foundations for an interesting philosophy of mind. Cognition (vision of universal), will and memory continuously interact in that frame. Friendship also leads to a specific political vision of civil society, based on relations of reciprocity (legal category of equity). The legal meaning and moral aspects of friendship emerge from the analysis of the three types of law: private law, public law and universal law. The universal law expresses the charity/benevolence (also friendship and love) of the wise man, considered by L...