Leibniz – Philosophical Writings

GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ has been described as a man of universal attainments and of almost inexhaustible mental power. A courtier, diplomat, scholar, mathematician and natural philosopher, he is perhaps the most brilliant figure since modern times began. Always recognised him as one of the greatest of system builders. Now in the twentieth century he receives as tribute the ideas and for the close thinking of some of his detailed arguments. With Descartes he shares the credit of having created modern philosophy, and with Newton the credit of having created modern mathematics and physics than any other philosopher of the first rank. And with Hobbes he shares the honour of having given the first explicit statement of modern philosophical idealism.

Leibniz was born at Leipzig in July 1646, thirteen years after the birth of Spinoza, and four years before the death of Descartes. His father, who died in 1652, was a professor of moral philosophy at Leipzig. At the age of fifteen Leibniz entered the university of that city; and in 1666 he became a Doctor of Laws, but at Altdorf. Nuremberg, where his friends secured the offer of a professorship. Meanwhile, he entered the political service of the powerful Elector-Archbishop of Mainz, the Elector Louis XIV. In 1673 on a diplomatic mission to London, he had a conversation with a member of the Royal Society. Early in the next year he paid a short visit to London, where he saw the Royal Society, and made the acquaintance of Boyle. On his return to Paris he devoted himself to the study of geometry under the guidance of Huygens.