“the straight line is a curve, any part of which is similar to the whole”
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Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist, and diplomat who is credited, alongside Isaac Newton, with the creation of calculus in addition to many other branches of mathematics, such as binary arithmetic and statistics. Leibniz has been called the "last universal genius" due to his vast expertise across fields, which became a rarity after his…
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science · German polymath (1646–1716) · mathematician · jurist · physicist · philosopher · diplomat · historian · librarian · musicologist · translator · music theorist · also Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, Freiherr Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, Gottfried Leibniz
Born 21 June 1646 · Died 14 November 1716 · Q9047
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2026· 5 entries
“can most simply be expressed by this series, that is, the aggregate of fractions alternately added and subtracted”
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“with all that comes to us according to his will”
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“Why is there something rather than nothing? The sufficient reason ... is found in a substance which ... is a necessary being bearing the reason for its existence within itself.”
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ArchDaily: Galería de Campus Georg-Eckert del Instituto Leibniz para Medios Educativos / Sehw Architektur - 1
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2024· 1 entry
“Citation choisie pour le 14 novembre 2024.”
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2021· 1 entry
EurekAlert!: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz-Prize for Iain Couzin
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2018· 7 entries
Inverse: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: 4 Quotes That Predict the Future of Computing
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CNET: Google Doodle celebrates mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
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Inc.: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: Here’s the Secret Reason For His Sudden Interest
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Morgenpost: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: Gelehrter als Google Doodle
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Indiatimes: Google honours famous German philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz with doodle
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India.com: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: Google Doodle Celebrates Renowned German Philosopher’s 372nd Birth Anniversary
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Augsburger Allgemeine: Google feiert Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz - Mathematiker, Philosoph, Erfinder
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2016· 2 entries
Deutschlandfunk: Vor 300 Jahren starb Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
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spektrum.de: Serie: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
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2013· 1 entry
heise online: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: "Anders hätte Gott sie gar nicht erschaffen können"
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2009· 1 entry
“Leibniz offert ici une base suffisamment rationnel pour Hölderlin's « Car tout est bien » du poème Patmos (Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (trad. Joachim Christian Horn), Monadologie / Lehrsätze der Philosophie, WBG Darmstadt 2009, (ISBN 978-3-534-23030-3), p. 171).”
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2008· 1 entry
“A variant translation is "natura non saltum facit" (literally, "Nature does not make a jump") (Britton, Andrew; Sedgwick, Peter H.; Bock, Burghard (2008). Ökonomische Theorie und christlicher Glaube. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 289. ISBN 978-3-8258-0162-5. Extract of page 289).”
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2006· 2 entries
“The Elements of True Piety (c. 1677), The Shorter Leibniz Texts (2006) edited by Lloyd H. Strickland, p. 189”
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“A Dialogue" (after 1695), as quoted in The Shorter Leibniz Texts (2006) edited by Lloyd H. Strickland, p. 170”
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2005· 1 entry
“La musica è il piacere che la mente umana prova quando conta senza essere conscia di contare. (citato in Marcus du Sautoy, L' enigma dei numeri primi. L'ipotesi di Riemann, il più grande mistero della matematica, traduzione di C. Capararo, BUR Biblioteca Univ. Rizzoli, 2005)”
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2000· 1 entry
“The famous calculemus of Leibniz appears in several places of his writing; this is the most frequently quoted; variants are found in the Preface to his New Essays on Human Understanding, and in Dissertatio de Arte Combinatoria (1666). See R. Chrisley, Artificial Intelligence (2000), p. 14; H. Busche, Leibniz' Weg ins perspektivische Universum (1997), p. 134.”
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1999· 1 entry
When the ongoing historical-critical scholarly editing of the collected papers of Leibniz by the editorial project Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: Sämtliche Schriften und Briefe ('Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: Complete Writings
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1993· 1 entry
With the legal form of a registered association, and which continues the activities of the Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR ('Academy of Sciences of the GDR') with personnel continuity
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1988· 2 entries
Published The Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque
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“Letter 11 to Grimarest: Passages Concerning the Abbe de St. Pierre's 'Project for Perpetual Peace' (June 1712). Taken from Leibniz: Political Writings (2nd Edition, 1988), Edited by Patrick Riley.”
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1985· 2 entries
It was reorganized and included in a joint program of German federal and state (Länder) academies
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The German government created the Leibniz Prize, offering an annual award of, as of 2025, €2
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1971· 1 entry
“Opening paragraph of Historia et Origo Calculi Differentialis (1714) Commercium epistolicum D. Joannis Collins et aliorum de analysi promota, see also Mathematische Schriften, Ed. C. I. Gerhardt, Georg Olms Verlag (1971) vol. 5, pp. 392–410; Tr. J. M. Child, "Newton and the art of discovery" Isaac Newton 1642–1727: A Memorial Volume (1927) Ed. W. J. Greenstreet, G. Bell, pp. 117–129.”
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1961· 1 entry
Norbert Wiener suggested that Leibniz should be considered the patron saint of cybernetics
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1960· 1 entry
Abraham Robinson worked out a rigorous foundation for Leibniz's infinitesimals, using model theory, in the context of a field of hyperreal numbers
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1938· 1 entry
“Letter to Thomas Burnet (1697), as quoted in Platonism, Aristotelianism and Cabalism in the Philosophy of Leibniz (1938) by Joseph Politella, p. 18”
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1929· 1 entry
“Cf. Martin Heidegger, What is Metaphysics? (1929)ː "Warum ist überhaupt Seiendes und nicht vielmehr Nichts? Das ist die Frage.”
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1916· 1 entry
“(May, 1686) as quoted in George R. Montgomery, Tr., "Correspondence between Leibniz and Arnauld," Leibniz: Discourse on metaphysics; correspondence with Arnauld, and Monadology (1916) VIII, p. 108”
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1906· 2 entries
And awarded previously by the Prussian Academy of Sciences and later the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin
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Garland published a volume of Leibniz's writings bearing on his many practical inventions and engineering work
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1901· 1 entry
And conducted by various editorial projects during that time, remains ongoing as of 2025, and is conducted by the editorial project Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: Sämtliche Schriften und Briefe ('Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: C
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1900· 1 entry
Bertrand Russell published a critical study of Leibniz's metaphysics
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1895· 1 entry
When Bodemann completed his catalogue of Leibniz's manuscripts and correspondence, did the enormous extent of Leibniz's Nachlass ('literary estate') become clear: about 15,000 letters to more than 1000 recipients, and mo
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1879· 1 entry
“Erster Theil bei zeno.org Übersetzung vom Julius Heinrich von Kirchmann, Leipzig 1879. Französisches Original: fr:s:Essais de Théodicée/Première partie”
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1875· 2 entries
“[...] if controversies were to arise, there would be no more need of disputation between two philosophers than between two calculators. For it would suffice for them to take their pencils in their hands and to sit down at the abacus, and say to each other (and if they so wish also to a friend called to help): Let us calculate.”
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“De arte characteristica ad perficiendas scientias ratione nitentes in C. I. Gerhardt (ed.), Die philosophischen Schriften von Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (7 vols. 1875–1890) VII 200.”
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1862· 1 entry
On the title page of his Beiträge zur Theorie der Sinneswahrnehmung (Contributions on the Theory of Sensory Perception) and published a detailed and aspiring monograph on Leibniz
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1855· 1 entry
“Anecdote (1701) from John Conduitt's manuscript, as quoted by Sir David Brewster, Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton (1855) Vol.2”
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1846· 1 entry
“(Original lat.: "Musica est exercitium arithmeticae occultum nescientis se numerare animi." - Gottschalk Eduard Guhrauer: Nachträge zu der Biographie. Gottfried Wilhelm Freiherr von Leibnitz, Ferdinand Hirt's Verlag, Breslau 1846, S. 66, Google Books)”
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1840· 1 entry
“De rerum originatione radicali (1697); reprinted in God. Guil. Leibnitii Opera philosophica quae exstant latina, gallica, germanica omniaː 1 (1840), p. 148”
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1716· 18 entries
Died 1716-11-14.
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“Calcolare con il sistema binario, ossia con 0 e 1, [...] è per la scienza il modo fondamentale di calcolare e consente nuove scoperte, [...] utili anche per la pratica dei numeri.”
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“This miracle of analysis, this marvel of the world of ideas, an almost amphibian object between Being and Non-being that we call the imaginary number.”
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“Zarówno Leibniz jak i Bach to — każdy w swojej dziedzinie — geniusze syntezy oryginalnej i zadziwiającej. Obaj osiągnęli pełnię: wszechstronnie ukazali złożoną całość uprawianej przez siebie dziedziny; filozof pokazał czym jest i czym może być filozofia, kompozytor — czym jest i czym może być muzyka.”
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“Languages are the best mirror of the human mind [and] the most ancient monuments of peoples.”
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“Although the whole of this life were said to be nothing but a dream and the physical world nothing but a phantasm, I should call this dream or phantasm real enough, if, using reason well, we were never deceived by it.”
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“deutscher Philosoph und Mathematiker”
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“Amar es encontrar en la felicidad del otro la propia felicidad.”
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“Amare è mettere la nostra felicità nella felicità di un altro.”
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“quando orientur controversiae, non magis disputatione opus erit inter duos philosophos, quam inter duos computistas. Sufficiet enim calamos in manus sumere sedereque ad abacos, et sibi mutuo (accito si placet amico) dicere: calculemus”
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“Como un mal menor es una especie de bien, así un bien menos es una especie de mal si obstaculiza un bien mayor.”
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“(EN) Theologian: But what is to love?Philosopher: To be delighted by the happiness of another.”
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“El alma es el espejo de un indestructible universo.”
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“Anche se l'interezza di questa vita non fosse altro che sogno e il mondo fisico un fantasma, io definirei questo sogno e questo fantasma abbastanza veri se, usando bene la ragione, non ne fossimo mai ingannati.”
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“Envejecemos después de haber madurado, porque nos acercamos a la muerte, que no es más que un cambio de escenario.”
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“Está en el gran orden que haya un pequeño desorden.”
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“La matemática universal debe tratar de un método exacto de determinación de las cosas que caen bajo el poder de la imaginación. Es, por así decirlo, una lógica de la imaginación.”
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“De veritatibus primis (1686)”
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1713· 1 entry
Career landmark: Aulic Council (1713).
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1678· 1 entry
Career landmark: court counsel (1678).
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1673· 1 entry
Awarded Fellow of the Royal Society (1673).
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1667· 1 entry
Studied at University of Altdorf (1666–1667).
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1666· 1 entry
Studied at Leipzig University (1661–1666).
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1663· 1 entry
Studied at University of Jena (1663–1663).
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1661· 1 entry
Studied at Alte Nikolaischule (Leipzig) (1653–1661).
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1646· 1 entry
Born 1646-06-21.
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