Gottfried Leibniz: biography of this philosopher and mathematician

Leibniz was one of Germany's most prolific researchers. Let's see why, in this biography.

Gottfried Leibniz (1646 - 1716) was a philosopher, physicist and mathematician who significantly influenced the development of modern science. He is also recognized as one of the representatives of the rationalist tradition of modernity, since he used his knowledge of mathematics and physics to explain both natural and human phenomena.

The following is a biography of Gottfried a biography of Gottfried Leibnizas well as his main contributions in the mathematical, logical and philosophical areas.

Gottfried Leibniz: biography of this philosopher and mathematician.

Gottfried Leibniz was born on July 1, 1646 in Leipzig, Germany.. The son of Friedrich Leibnütz and Catherina Schmuck, Leibniz grew up in a devout Lutheran family towards the end of the Thirty Years' War, which had left the country in ruins.

During childhood he was educated at the Nicolai school, always accompanied by self-taught learning in his father's personal library, which in turn had been inherited from a professor of moral philosophy at the University of Leipzig. In fact, by the age of 12 Leibniz had taught himself Latin, and at the same time he was studying Greek..

In the year 1661 he began to study law at the University of Leipzig, where he became especially interested in the men who had been the protagonists of the first scientific and philosophical revolutions of modern Europe. The latter were Galileo, Thomas Hobbes, Francis Bacon and René Descartes, and he even recovered the thought of the scholastics and Aristotle.

After completing his studies in law, Leibniz spent several years in Paris, where he was trained in mathematics and physics. he was educated in mathematics and physics. There he became acquainted with the leading French philosophers of the time and studied in greater detail those who had already interested him earlier. He eventually trained with Christiaan Huygens, who proved to be instrumental in the later development of Leibniz's theories of differential and integral calculus.

After traveling around Europe and meeting the most representative philosophers of the time, Leibniz established an Academy of Sciences in Berlin, Germany. established an Academy of Sciences in Berlinwhere he was constantly active. He spent his last years trying to compile the major expressions of his philosophy. And without success, he died in Hannover in November 1716.

Some of Leibniz's contributions to philosophy and science

Like other philosophers and scientists of the time, Leibniz specialized in various areas. This allowed him to formulate different theories and lay the foundations for the modern development of science. To give a few examples three of Leibniz's main contributions, both in mathematics and logic, as well as in philosophy.

1. Mathematics: infinitesimal calculus

Along with Isaac Newton, Gottfried Leibniz is recognized as one of the creators of the calculus. Leibniz's notebooks report the first use of integral calculus in 1675. He had used it to find the area under the function y = x. He also introduced notations such as the integral sign ("S" elongated from the Latin "sum"), and the d (from the Latin word "differencia") used for differential calculus. This gave birth to Leibniz's Rulewhich is precisely the product rule of differential calculus.

He also contributed to the definition of the mathematical entities we call "infinitesimals" and to the definition of their algebraic properties, although with many paradoxes at the time. The latter was revised and reformulated starting in the 19th century, with the development of modern calculus.

2. Logic: foundations for epistemological and modal logic

Faithful to his mathematical training, Gottfried Leibniz argued that the complexity of human reasoning could be translated into the language of calculus, and that, once the complexity of human reasoning was understood, it could be translated into the language of calculus.and that, once understood, they could be the solution to resolve differences of opinion and argumentation.

For this reason he is recognized as the most significant logician of his time, at least since Aristotle. Among other things, he described the properties and method of linguistic resources such as conjunction, disjunction, negation, set, inclusion, identity and empty set. All of them are useful to understand and carry out valid reasoning and to differentiate them from invalid ones. This constitutes one of the main bases for the development of epistemic logic and also modal logic..

3. Philosophy: the principle of individuation

In his thesis "On the Principle of Individuation", which he wrote in the 1660s, Leibniz defends the existence of an individual value which constitutes a whole in itself, but which is possible to differentiate from the whole. This was the first approach to the German theory of monads..

In analogy with physics, Leibniz held that monads are in the mental realm what atoms are in the physical realm. They are the ultimate elements of the universe and what gives substantial form to being, through properties such as the following: they are eternal, they do not decompose into other simpler particles, they are dual, active and subject to their own laws, as well as independent of each other and function as an individual representation of the universe itself.

Bibliographical references:

• Belaval, Y. and Look, B. (2018). Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved October 22, 2018. Available at https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz.
• Leibniz, G. (2017). New World Encyclopedia. Retrieved October 22, 2018. Available at http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Gottfried_Leibniz.