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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 ...
Dec 22, 2007 · Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) was one of the great thinkers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and is known as the last “universal genius”. He made deep and important contributions to the fields of metaphysics, epistemology, logic, philosophy of religion, as well as mathematics, physics, geology ...
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Jan 26, 2024 · Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) was a German polymath who became well-known across Europe for his work, particularly in the fields of science, mathematics, and philosophy. Leibniz's rationalist philosophy attempted to reconcile traditional religious beliefs with the new discoveries of the Scientific Revolution, and his work was ...
- Mark Cartwright
- Early Life and Career
- Legacy
- Contributions to Math
- Contributions to Philosophy
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Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was born in Leipzig, Germany on July 1, 1646 to Friedrich Leibniz, a professor of moral philosophy, and Catharina Schmuck, whose father was a law professor. Though Leibniz attended elementary school, he was mostly self-taught from the books in his father’s library (who had died in 1652 when Leibniz was six). While young, L...
Leibniz was considered a great polymath and he made many important contributions to philosophy, physics, law, politics, theology, math, psychology, and other fields. He may be most well known, however, for some of his contributions to math and philosophy. When Leibniz died, he had written between 200,000 to 300,000 pages and more than 15,000 letter...
Modern Binary System
Leibniz invented the modern binary system, which uses the symbols 0 and 1 to represent numbers and logical statements. The modern binary system is integral to the functioning and operation of computers, even though Leibniz discovered this system a few centuries prior to the invention of the first modern computer. It should be noted, however, that Leibniz did not discover binary numbers themselves. Binary numbers were already used, for example, by the ancient Chinese, whose use of binary numbe...
Calculus
Leibniz developed a complete theory of integral and differential calculus independently of Newton, and was the first one to publish on the subject (1684 as opposed to Newton’s 1693), though both thinkers seem to have developed their ideas at the same time. When the Royal Society of London, whose president at the time was Newton, decided who developed calculus first, they gave credit for the discoveryof calculus to Newton, while credit for the publication on calculus went to Leibniz. Leibniz w...
Matrices
Leibniz also rediscovered a method of arranging linear equations into arraysor matrices, which makes manipulating those equations much easier. A similar method had first been discovered by Chinese mathematicians years earlier, but had fallen into abandonment.
Monads and Philosophy of Mind
In the 17th century, René Descartesput forward the notion of dualism, in which the non-physical mind was separate from the physical body. This sparked the question of how exactly the mind and body are related to one another. In response, some philosophers said that the mind could only be explained in terms of physical matter. Leibniz, on the other hand, believed that the world is made of “monads,” which are not made of matter. Each monad, in turn, has its own individual identity, as well as i...
Optimism
Leibniz’s most famous contribution to philosophy may be “optimism,” the idea that the world we live in—which encompasses everything that exists and has existed—is the “best of all possible worlds.” The idea is based on the assumption that God is a good and rational being, and has considered many other worlds in addition to this one before choosing this one to come into existence. Leibniz explained evil by stating that it may result in a greater good, even if an individual experiences negative...
Garber, Daniel. “Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646–1716).” Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Routledge, www.rep.routledge.com/articles/biographical/leibniz-gottfried-wilhelm-1646-1716/v-1.Jolley, Nicholas, editor. The Cambridge Companion to Leibniz. Cambridge University Press, 1995.Mastin, Luke. “17th Century Mathematics - Leibniz.” The Story of Mathematics, Storyofmathematics.com, 2010, www.storyofmathematics.com/17th_leibniz.html.Tietz, Sarah. “Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm.” ELS, Oct. 2013.- Alane Lim
Mar 29, 2024 · Many also point out that although Newton had been working on similar ideas in private since the 1660s, Leibniz was the first to formally publish a treatise on calculus. Leibniz‘s superior notation system is also the one still used by mathematicians today.
Gottfried Leibniz: Metaphysics. The German rationalist philosopher, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716), is one of the great renaissance men of Western thought. He has made significant contributions in several fields spanning the intellectual landscape, including mathematics, physics, logic, ethics, and theology.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) Widely hailed as a universal genius, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was one of the most important thinkers of the late 17 th and early 18 th centuries. A polymath and one of the founders of calculus, Leibniz is best known philosophically for his metaphysical idealism; his theory that reality is composed of ...
