Gottfried Leibniz

**Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz** (also _Leibnitz_ or _von Leibniz_) 1 July 1 (21 June OS) 1646 – 14 November 1716) was a German intellectual who wrote mostly in French and Latin.
He played an important role in both philosophy and mathematics. He invented calculus independently of Newton, and his notation for derivatives is the one in general use since then. He also invented the binary system, foundation of modern computers.

## Works

He was taught law and philosophy. He served as secretary to two major German noble houses: one became the British royal family while he served it. Leibniz played a major role in the European politics and diplomacy of his day.

### Philosophy

In philosophy, he is most remembered for optimism. He thought our universe is the best possible one God could have made. He was one of the great 17th century rationalists. René Descartes and Baruch Spinoza are the other two. His philosophy also both looks back to the Scholastic tradition and anticipates modern logic and analysis.

### Technology

Leibniz also made contributions to physics and technology, and anticipated ideas which surfaced much later in biology, medicine, geology, probability theory, psychology, and information science. He wrote on politics, law, ethics, theology, history, and philology. Sometimes, he even wrote in verse. His contributions are scattered in journals and in tens of thousands of letters and unpublished manuscripts. There is no complete edition of Leibniz's writings, and a complete account of his accomplishments is not yet possible. Leibniz is sometimes known as the last "universal genius".
Leibniz is perhaps most famous for his involvement in development of calculus independent of Isaac Newton and creation of Leibniz Notation which is the standard form of calculus today.

## Related pages

- German philosophy

## More reading

- Cerqueiro Daniel, _Leibnitz y la ciencia del infinito,_ Buenos Aires 2014, Pequeña Venecia .

## Infobox (philosopher)

- **region**: Western Philosophy
- **era**: 17th-century philosophy
- **color**: #B0C4DE
- **image**: Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz.jpg
- 250px
- **image caption**: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
- **name**: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
- **birth date**: 1 July 1646
- **birth place**: Leipzig, Electorate of Saxony
- **death place**: Hanover, Electorate of Hanover
- **main interests**: Metaphysics, Mathematics, Theodicy
- **doctoral advisor**: Erhard Weigel
- **doctoral students**: Jacob Bernoulli
Christian von Wolff
- **influences**: Bible, Holy Scripture, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine of Hippo, Scholasticism, Ramon Llull, Thomas Aquinas, Francisco Suárez, René Descartes, Descartes, Jakob Thomasius, Baruch Spinoza, Spinoza
- **influenced**: Christian Wolff (philosopher), Christian Wolff, Immanuel Kant, Kant, Bertrand Russell, Russell, Bernardino Varisco, Varisco, Kurt Gödel, Martin Heidegger, Heidegger, Lyndon LaRouche, LaRouche, Friedrich Nietzsche, Nietzsche
- **notable ideas**: Infinitesimal calculus, Monadology, Theodicy, Optimism
Leibniz formula for pi
Leibniz harmonic triangle
Leibniz formula for determinants
Leibniz integral rule
Principle of sufficient reason
Diagrammatic reasoning
Notation for differentiation
Fermat's little theorem, Proof of Fermat's little theorem
Kinetic energy
Entscheidungsproblem
- **signature**: Leibnitz signature.svg