Gottfried von Leibniz
“And the invention of” Calculus
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a genius in many fields including law, religion, statecraft, history, literature, logic, metaphysics, and speculative philosophy. Leibniz, born on July 1, 1646, applied mathematical reasoning to the phenomena of the physical universe. He imagined calculus and combinatorial analysis.
Leibniz lost his father at the age of six and so he was largely self-taught by constant reading in his fathers library. At the age of eight he began the study of Latin and by age twelve had mastered it enough to compose creditable Latin verse. From Latin he went on to Greek, which he also learned largely by his own efforts. Classical studies were not enough for Leibnizs development, and he began studying logic. Before the age of fifteen he came up with the first clues to his metaphysics while attempting to reform logic. Leibniz received his bachelor degree from the University of Leipzig in 1663 at the age of seventeen with an essay foreshadowing one of the doctrines of his philosophy. Leibniz received his doctors’ degree from the University of Aldorf for his essay on a new method of teaching law. In his essay called an essay, Leibniz describes a general method in which all truths of reason would be reduced to a kind of calculation. At some time this would be a sort of universal language or script, but different from all those projected; for the symbols and even the words in it would direct the reason; and errors, except those of fact, would be mere mistakes in calculation. It would be very difficult to form or invent the language or characteristic, but very easy to understand it without dictionaries. In 1664, Leibniz invented a calculating machine—which handled addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and extraction of roots. Prior to Leibniz, calculating machines could only add and subtract. He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Society for his work on his calculating... [continues]
“And the invention of” Calculus
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a genius in many fields including law, religion, statecraft, history, literature, logic, metaphysics, and speculative philosophy. Leibniz, born on July 1, 1646, applied mathematical reasoning to the phenomena of the physical universe. He imagined calculus and combinatorial analysis.
Leibniz lost his father at the age of six and so he was largely self-taught by constant reading in his fathers library. At the age of eight he began the study of Latin and by age twelve had mastered it enough to compose creditable Latin verse. From Latin he went on to Greek, which he also learned largely by his own efforts. Classical studies were not enough for Leibnizs development, and he began studying logic. Before the age of fifteen he came up with the first clues to his metaphysics while attempting to reform logic. Leibniz received his bachelor degree from the University of Leipzig in 1663 at the age of seventeen with an essay foreshadowing one of the doctrines of his philosophy. Leibniz received his doctors’ degree from the University of Aldorf for his essay on a new method of teaching law. In his essay called an essay, Leibniz describes a general method in which all truths of reason would be reduced to a kind of calculation. At some time this would be a sort of universal language or script, but different from all those projected; for the symbols and even the words in it would direct the reason; and errors, except those of fact, would be mere mistakes in calculation. It would be very difficult to form or invent the language or characteristic, but very easy to understand it without dictionaries. In 1664, Leibniz invented a calculating machine—which handled addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and extraction of roots. Prior to Leibniz, calculating machines could only add and subtract. He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Society for his work on his calculating... [continues]
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