Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz[a] (1 July 1646 [O.S. 21 June] – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat who invented calculus in addition to many other branches of mathematics and statistics. Leibniz has been called the "last universal genius" due to his knowledge and skills in different fields and because such people became less common during the Industrial Revolution and spread of specialized labor after his lifetime.[15] He is a prominent figure in both the history of philosophy and the history of mathematics. He wrote works on philosophy, theology, ethics, politics, law, history, philology, games, music, and other studies. Leibniz also made major contributions to physics and technology, and anticipated notions that surfaced much later in probability theory, biology, medicine, geology, psychology, linguistics and computer science. In addition, he contributed to the field of library science by devising a cataloguing system whilst working at the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel, Germany, that would have served as a guide for many of Europe's largest libraries.[16] Leibniz's contributions to a wide range of subjects were scattered in various learned journals, in tens of thousands of letters and in unpublished manuscripts. He wrote in several languages, primarily in Latin, French and German.[17][b]
"Leibniz" redirects here. For other uses, see Leibniz (disambiguation).
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
1 July 1646
14 November 1716 (aged 70)
- Alte Nikolaischule
- Leipzig University (BA, 1662; MA, 1664; LLB, 1665; Dr. phil. hab., 1666)
- University of Jena
(1663)[8] - University of Altdorf
(Dr. jur., 1666)
Bartholomäus Leonhard von Schwendendörffer (Dr. jur. thesis advisor)[6][7]
- Erhard Weigel (Jena)[8]
- Jakob Thomasius (B.A. advisor)[9]
- Johann Adam Schertzer (B.A. advisor)
- Christiaan Huygens
- Jacob Bernoulli (epistolary correspondent)
- Christian Wolff (epistolary correspondent)
Mathematics, physics, geology, medicine, biology, embryology, epidemiology, veterinary medicine, paleontology, psychology, engineering, librarianship linguistics, philology, sociology, metaphysics, ethics, economics, diplomacy, history, politics, music theory, poetry, logic, theodicy, universal language, universal science
- Algebraic logic
- Binary code
- Calculus
- Differential equations
- Mathesis universalis
- Monads
- Best of all possible worlds
- Pre-established harmony
- Identity of indiscernibles
- Mathematical matrix
- Mathematical function
- Newton–Leibniz axiom
- Leibniz's notation
- Leibniz integral rule
- Integral symbol
- Leibniz harmonic triangle
- Leibniz's test
- Leibniz formula for π
- Leibniz formula for determinants
- Fractional derivative
- Chain rule
- Quotient rule
- Product rule
- Leibniz wheel
- Leibniz's gap
- Algebra of concepts
- Vis viva (principle of conservation of energy)
- Principle of least action
- Salva veritate
- Stepped reckoner
- Symbolic logic
- Analysis situs
- Principle of sufficient reason
- Law of continuity
- Transcendental law of homogeneity
- Ars combinatoria (alphabet of human thought)
- Characteristica universalis
- Calculus ratiocinator
- Compossibility
- Partial fraction decomposition
- Protogaea
- Problem of why there is anything at all
- Pluralistic idealism
- Metaphysical dynamism
- Relationism
- Apperception
- A priori/a posteriori distinction
- Deontic logic
- Well-founded phenomenon
As a philosopher, he was a leading representative of 17th-century rationalism and idealism. As a mathematician, his major achievement was the development of the main ideas of differential and integral calculus, independently of Isaac Newton's contemporaneous developments.[19] Mathematicians have consistently favored Leibniz's notation as the conventional and more exact expression of calculus.[20][21][22]
In the 20th century, Leibniz's notions of the law of continuity and transcendental law of homogeneity found a consistent mathematical formulation by means of non-standard analysis. He was also a pioneer in the field of mechanical calculators. While working on adding automatic multiplication and division to Pascal's calculator, he was the first to describe a pinwheel calculator in 1685[23] and invented the Leibniz wheel, later used in the arithmometer, the first mass-produced mechanical calculator.
In philosophy and theology, Leibniz is most noted for his optimism, i.e. his conclusion that our world is, in a qualified sense, the best possible world that God could have created, a view sometimes lampooned by other thinkers, such as Voltaire in his satirical novella Candide. Leibniz, along with René Descartes and Baruch Spinoza, was one of the three influential early modern rationalists. His philosophy also assimilates elements of the scholastic tradition, notably the assumption that some substantive knowledge of reality can be achieved by reasoning from first principles or prior definitions. The work of Leibniz anticipated modern logic and still influences contemporary analytic philosophy, such as its adopted use of the term "possible world" to define modal notions.
Biography[edit]
Early life[edit]
Gottfried Leibniz was born on July 1 [OS: June 21], 1646, in Leipzig, Saxony, to Friedrich Leibniz and Catharina Schmuck.[24]
He was baptized two days later at St. Nicholas Church, Leipzig; his godfather was the Lutheran theologian Martin Geier.[25] His father died when he was six years old, and Leibniz was raised by his mother.[26]
Leibniz's father had been a Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Leipzig, where he also served as dean of philosophy. The boy inherited his father's personal library. He was given free access to it from the age of seven, shortly after his father's death. While Leibniz's schoolwork was largely confined to the study of a small canon of authorities, his father's library enabled him to study a wide variety of advanced philosophical and theological works—ones that he would not have otherwise been able to read until his college years.[27] Access to his father's library, largely written in Latin, also led to his proficiency in the Latin language, which he achieved by the age of 12. At the age of 13 he composed 300 hexameters of Latin verse in a single morning for a special event at school.[28]
In April 1661 he enrolled in his father's former university at age 14.[29][8][30] There he was guided, among others, by Jakob Thomasius, previously a student of Friedrich. Leibniz completed his bachelor's degree in Philosophy in December 1662. He defended his Disputatio Metaphysica de Principio Individui (Metaphysical Disputation on the Principle of Individuation),[31] which addressed the principle of individuation, on 9 June 1663 [O.S. 30 May], presenting an early version of monadic substance theory. Leibniz earned his master's degree in Philosophy on 7 February 1664. In December 1664 he published and defended a dissertation Specimen Quaestionum Philosophicarum ex Jure collectarum (An Essay of Collected Philosophical Problems of Right),[31] arguing for both a theoretical and a pedagogical relationship between philosophy and law. After one year of legal studies, he was awarded his bachelor's degree in Law on 28 September 1665.[32] His dissertation was titled De conditionibus (On Conditions).[31]
In early 1666, at age 19, Leibniz wrote his first book, De Arte Combinatoria (On the Combinatorial Art), the first part of which was also his habilitation thesis in Philosophy, which he defended in March 1666.[31][33] De Arte Combinatoria was inspired by Ramon Llull's Ars Magna and contained a proof of the existence of God, cast in geometrical form, and based on the argument from motion.
His next goal was to earn his license and Doctorate in Law, which normally required three years of study. In 1666, the University of Leipzig turned down Leibniz's doctoral application and refused to grant him a Doctorate in Law, most likely due to his relative youth.[34][35] Leibniz subsequently left Leipzig.[36]
Leibniz then enrolled in the University of Altdorf and quickly submitted a thesis, which he had probably been working on earlier in Leipzig.[37] The title of his thesis was Disputatio Inauguralis de Casibus Perplexis in Jure (Inaugural Disputation on Ambiguous Legal Cases).[31] Leibniz earned his license to practice law and his Doctorate in Law in November 1666. He next declined the offer of an academic appointment at Altdorf, saying that "my thoughts were turned in an entirely different direction".[38]
As an adult, Leibniz often introduced himself as "Gottfried von Leibniz". Many posthumously published editions of his writings presented his name on the title page as "Freiherr G. W. von Leibniz." However, no document has ever been found from any contemporary government that stated his appointment to any form of nobility.[39]
Philology[edit]
Leibniz the philologist was an avid student of languages, eagerly latching on to any information about vocabulary and grammar that came his way. In 1710, he applied ideas of gradualism and uniformitarianism to linguistics in a short essay.[185] He refuted the belief, widely held by Christian scholars of the time, that Hebrew was the primeval language of the human race. At the same time, he rejected the idea of unrelated language groups and considered them all to have a common source.[186] He also refuted the argument, advanced by Swedish scholars in his day, that a form of proto-Swedish was the ancestor of the Germanic languages. He puzzled over the origins of the Slavic languages and was fascinated by classical Chinese. Leibniz was also an expert in the Sanskrit language.[187]
He published the princeps editio (first modern edition) of the late medieval Chronicon Holtzatiae, a Latin chronicle of the County of Holstein.
