Gottfried Wilhelm LeibnizBorn in the town of Leipzig, Germany in 1646, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a philosopher, lawyer, diplomat, mathematician and scientist; a man who was, and is still, widely considered to be one of the three great early-modern rationalist thinkers (together with Rene Descartes and Benedict Spinoza). The distinguishing mark of the rationalist is his emphasis on the primary role of reason in the acquisition of knowledge. Combined, the three were a contradiction to the other famous and opposing trio early modern intellectuals: the British empiricists (John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume).
In the philosophical world, Leibniz is probably best known for his thoroughgoing metaphysical theory, monadology. This view postulates that reality consists of many completely independent, individual simples called monads. Though it may seem similar to various atomistic theories, monads for Leibniz were not defined materially or spatially. In fact, monads need not be “small” – each human person is itself a monad. The key to being a monad is being irreducibly simple at an ontological level. Another difference from atomistic theories is the view that monads are completely independent and do not interact. Rather, there is a sort of determinism in Leibniz’ ontology whereby monads following something like a pre-programmed set of instructions, and where all seeming interactions are actually constituted by all monads “knowing” what they are to do at each moment. Indeed, because of this instrinsic information that each monad contains, they are said to be like little mirrors of the universe
The accomplishments of Leibniz are not limited to the philosophical. In his capacity as a mathematician, Leibniz invented a calculus (he shares the achievement with Newton, though the two developed their systems independently). In fact, he published his findings before Newton and it is his notation that is used even to the present day. He also fathered the notion of kinetic energy and coined the term “function” in reference to curve related quantity such as a slope or point. Leibniz genius was so apparent that he was offered the position of professor at the young age of 21, although he declined the offer due to his desire to be a man of the world.
Web Resources On Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
IEP: Leibniz
Wikipedia: Leibniz
Book Resources On Gottfried Wilhelm LeibnizG.W. Leibniz's Monadology: An Edition for Students by G. W. Leibniz, Nicholas Rescher
Leibniz: Political Writings by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
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