Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: Father of Calculus

1646—1716

Figure 1— Leibniz

Gottfried Leibniz was indeed a remarkable man. During his lifetime between 1646 and 1716, he discovered and developed monumental mathematical theories. In addition, he speculated on the universe, physics and other human philosophy. He was also an ambassador, physicist and engineer.

Leibniz entered college at age fourteen in Leipzig (in today’s Germany). While it was a young age for his time, it was not nearly as unusual as it would be in the modern world. His main focus at the University of Leipzig was philosophy. An ambitious man, one of Leibniz’s goals was to “collate all human knowledge.”

Throughout his vast career, Leibniz was extremely well connected throughout the intellectual networks of Europe. At his zenith, he had 600 contacts in various countries. Among these associations was noted physicist and mathematician Sir Isaac Newton. Leibniz often worked separately yet in competition with these correspondents for the development of calculus. One original contribution of Leibniz was the first publication of today’s notation (the calculus expression for an integral). Despite the fact that controversy over “who discovered what” sometimes developed between competing minds, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz indeed led a remarkable life throughout a wide range of disciplines.

Internet Reference Links and Information Sources

School of Mathematical and Computational Sciences—University of St. Andrews

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Leibniz.html

The Metaphysics Research Lab—Center for the Study of Language and Information—Stanford University

http://mally.stanford.edu/leibniz.html

Translated Works of Leibniz

http://www.leibniz-translations.com/

—Compiled by James Licata—