Gottfried Leibniz
1646 – 1716 German philosopher, mathematician
The polymath who invented calculus independently and dreamed of a logic of thought.
- Religion
- Lutheran Protestant who worked for church reunion; he served briefly as secretary of a Nuremberg alchemical society in his youth.
- Affiliations
- Founded the Berlin Academy of Sciences. Early involvement with an alchemical society; no evidence of Freemasonry.
Leibniz developed calculus at the same time as Newton, and his notation is the one still used today. He designed early calculating machines and imagined a universal logical language for reasoning. In philosophy he held this to be the best of all possible worlds, ruled by pre-established harmony.
Connections
- rival of Isaac Newton — Bitter priority dispute over the invention of calculus.
- rival of Isaac Newton — They fought bitterly over who invented calculus first.
In the timeline
- 1684 Newton and Leibniz, and the calculus priority dispute mentioned