Meet Gottfried Wilhelm Von Leibniz

Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz is widely known today as the Father of Calculus, but is also noted for making important contributions to science, philosophy, physics and mathematics in the 17^th century.  In his day, he wore many hats, but he was mostly recognized by his work as a diplomat.  Leibniz was a man with a vast career, which raises the question: How does one man come to be so knowledgeable?  He was an ambitious man whose goal was to “collate all human knowledge.”  This introductory post delves into the early shaping of the intellectual genius who was driven by the desire to master several areas of thought. 

Leibniz was born on July 1^st, 1646 in Leipzig, Germany to Friedrich Leibniz and Katherina Schmuck.  From an early age, academia was an integral (pun intended) part of his life, as his father was a professor of moral philosophy at the University of Leipzig and his mother came from an affluent and educated family.  Leibniz began reading from an early age, and when Friedrich died in 1652 a close relative ensured that Leibniz had full access to his father’s library.  He was only 6 at the time. Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz committed countless hours delving deep into his father’s wide range of classical, scholastic and patristic texts, resulting in learning Latin by age 8 and Greek by age 12.  By age 15, Leibniz was enrolled in the University of Leibniz to study law.  During his years attaining both his bachelor degree and his doctoral degree, he was strongly influenced by the works of Francis Bacon, Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler.  He studied Aristotle’s method of logic and categorizing knowledge, but began to develop his own system of ordering logical truths which ended up becoming the basis of many of his rigorous mathematical proofs.     

As previously mentioned, Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz was known in the 17^th century for his work as a statesman, probably because of his numerous positions in German politics following university.  He acted as a secretary for the Rosicrucian Society in Nuremburg, an employee of the German government under Boineburg, and an advisor to Archbishop Elector of Mainz, Germany, all while working on a variety of side projects in science, religion, literature and politics.

            Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz devoted himself to Germany in a time of chaos, as the country was in a period of ruin after the end of the Thirty Years’ War.  The Thirty Years’ War ended in 1648 and was fought by several European nations for reasons ranging from religious, dynastic, territorial and commercial.  The rivalries during the war destroyed much of Europe and drastically shifted the balance of power.  Since the power of the Holy Roman Empire was broken because of the treaty that ended the war, the German states were left to decide upon their own state's religion.  Being well-versed in religion, Leibniz kept a lifelong goal of reunifying the Christian Churches.  At the time, King Louis XIV of France was gaining power and becoming a threat to this goal of reunification, so Leibniz was sent on expeditions to Egypt and Paris with a mission of preventing further divergence of the church.   

His work as a diplomat required a lot of travel, which allowed him to become well-connected throughout the intellectual networks Europe, as he made a point to seek out leading mathematicians, scientists and philosophers in each city he visited.  Leibniz had over 500 correspondents by the end of his life – many of his letters can still be read today.

           

References:

Belaval, Y. & Look, B.C. (2017).  Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.  Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz

O’Connor, J. J. & Robertson, E. F. (1998).  Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz.  Retrieved from http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Leibniz.html

W.H. Wilson Company (2004).  Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm von.  Leaders of the Information Age (Bio Ref Bank).  Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.miamioh.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=5&sid=43a42a52-4b57-4df3-95b9-8b54bcd2f99a%40pdc-v-sessmgr01&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=203035392&db=brb