GOTTFRIED WILLHELM VON LEIBNIZ (July 1st, 1646 — November 14th, 1716)

German mathematician, philosopher, and political adviser.

Main accomplishments:

• Independently developed differential and integral calculus.
• Known as one of the most influential thinkers of the 17th and 18th centuries for establishing the principle of sufficient reason and the principle of pre-established harmony.
• Composed multiple philosophical essays, including On the Art of Combination (1666) and Discourse on Metaphysics (1686).

Despite never having produced a magnum opus to rival René Descartes’ Discours de la méthode or Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica, Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646–1716) is considered a universal genius and one of the most original thinkers of the early modern period. His major contribution to mathematics was discovering the fundamental principles of infinitesimal calculus, independently of Newton. An individual of extraordinary breadth of knowledge, he made significant contributions to optics, mechanics (especially the theory of momentum), statistics, and probability theory and was a pioneer in the use of binary systems and modern symbolic logic.

EARLY LIFE

Known as the last universal genius, Gottfried Leibniz was born in Leipzig, Germany on July 1st, 1646. His family belonged to the educated elite: his mother was the daughter of a law professor and his father, who died before Leibniz was six, was a professor of law at the University of Leipzig as well as a jurist. Leibniz was sent to the Nicolai School but was mostly self-taught from his father’s vast library. At age twelve, he had taught himself to read Latin and Greek, and by age twenty, he had learned everything in the standard textbooks of mathematics, philosophy, theology, and law.

In 1661, Leibniz was accepted into the University of Leipzig to study law. Here, he learned the philosophies of Galileo, Hobbes, and Descartes. After completing his baccalaureate thesis On the Principle of the Individual in 1663, he was refused his law doctorate on the grounds of being too young.

CAREER 

In 1666, Leibniz moved to Nuremberg to continue his studies at the University of Altdorf. That same year, he completed On the Art of Combination and was consequently offered a faculty position in 1667 when he completed his doctorate. He then began to focus on natural philosophy, composing New Physical Hypothesis (1671) and Discourse on Metaphysics (1686) as a two-part essay. During this time, Leibniz procured a position with the Elector of Mainz.

In 1672, the Elector sent Leibniz to Paris on a diplomatic mission, which worked out very well for him because, at the time, Paris was leading scientific research. Here, he met intellects such as Antoine Arnauld, Nicolas Malebranche, and Christiaan Huygens, who studied philosophy, physics, and mathematics with him. He developed a design for a simple calculator and in 1673 took a trip to London to present it to the Royal Society.

Leibniz developed the idea that time and space are not substances but imaginary, and that extension and motion are the results of force. In 1676, he discovered the formula for dynamics, which substitutes kinetic energy for the conservation of movement. Later that year, he was appointed Leibniz librarian to Duke John Frederick. By 1678, Leibniz was serving as a councilor. During this time, he researched hydraulic presses, windmills, mechanical devices such as clocks, submarines, engineering for mining, as well as keeping up with his philosophy and dynamics.

Leibniz was perfecting his ideas about metaphysics and calculus, and in 1684, he published New Method for the Greatest and the Least, an exposition on differential calculus. Two years later, he completed Discourse on Metaphysics (1686). During this time, he was developing the philosophy of monadology, which he then defined in The Monadology (1714).

LATER LIFE

In 1700, Leibniz was inaugurated into the Academy of Sciences in Paris. In 1710, he published Theodicy and in 1714, The Monadology. When George I ascended the throne of England in 1714, he exiled Leibniz from the country, partly because of the war and partly because Leibniz was being accused of stealing ideas from Newton, though he had developed them independently. By 1716, he was suffering so badly from gout that he was confined to bed rest. He died on November 14th, 1716.