Leibniz
By: Richard T.W. Arthur
Series: Classic thinkers; Classic thinkers
Publisher: Polity Press
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Cambridge, UK; Malden, MA, USA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 231
ISBN-13: 9780745653747; 9780745653754
Description: Few philosophers have left a legacy like that of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. He has been credited not only with inventing the differential calculus, but also with anticipating the basic ideas of modern logic, information science, and fractal geometry. He made important contributions to such diverse fields as jurisprudence, geology and etymology, while sketching designs for calculating machines, wind pumps, and submarines. But the common presentation of his philosophy as a kind of unworldly idealism is at odds with all this bustling practical activity.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 208-215) and index.
Table of contents: title: Logic, Language and the Encyclopaedia Project; title: Natural Philosophy and the Science of Life; title: Mathematical Philosophy; title: The Reform of Metaphysics; title: Dynamics: The Physics and Metaphysics of Action; title: The Philosophy of Space and Time; title: Morals and Politics; title: Leibnizian Posterity.