Editing Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (section)

==Biography==
===Early life===
Gottfried Leibniz was born on 1 July {{bracket|[[Old Style|OS]]: 21 June}} 1646, in [[Leipzig]], Saxony, to [[Friedrich Leibniz]] (1597–1652) and Catharina Schmuck (1621–1664).<ref>Sariel, Aviram. "Diabolic Philosophy." Studia Leibnitiana H. 1 (2019): 99–118.</ref>
He was baptized two days later at [[St. Nicholas Church, Leipzig]]; his godfather was the [[Lutheran]] theologian {{Interlanguage link|Martin Geier|de}}.<ref>Kurt Müller, Gisela Krönert, ''Leben und Werk von Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: Eine Chronik''. Frankfurt a.M., Klostermann 1969, p. 3.</ref> His father died when he was six years old, and Leibniz was raised by his mother.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Philosophy of Leibniz: Metaphysics and Language|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b3M8DwAAQBAJ&q=Gottfried+Leibniz+father+died+when+he+was+six+and+a+half+years+old&pg=PA17|isbn=978-0-19-505946-5|last1=Mates|first1=Benson|year=1989| publisher=Oxford University Press }}</ref>

Leibniz's father had been a Professor of Moral Philosophy at the [[University of Leipzig]], where he also served as dean of philosophy. The boy inherited his father's personal library. He was given free access to it from the age of seven, shortly after his father's death. While Leibniz's schoolwork was largely confined to the study of a small [[Canon (basic principle)|canon]] of authorities, his father's library enabled him to study a wide variety of advanced philosophical and theological works—ones that he would not have otherwise been able to read until his college years.<ref>Mackie (1845), 21</ref> Access to his father's library, largely written in [[Latin]], also led to his proficiency in the Latin language, which he achieved by the age of 12. At the age of 13 he composed 300 [[hexameters]] of [[Latin poetry|Latin verse]] in a single morning for a special event at school.<ref>Mackie (1845), 22</ref>

In April 1661 he enrolled in his father's former university at age 14.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Leibniz.html|title=Leibniz biography|website=history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk|access-date=2018-05-08}}</ref><ref name="Arthur p. 16"/><ref>Mackie (1845), 26</ref> There he was guided, among others, by [[Jakob Thomasius]], previously a student of Friedrich. Leibniz completed his [[bachelor's degree]] in Philosophy in December 1662. He defended his ''Disputatio Metaphysica de Principio Individui'' (''Metaphysical Disputation on the Principle of Individuation''),<ref name="Arthur p. x">Arthur 2014, p. x.</ref> which addressed the [[principle of individuation]], on {{OldStyleDateDY|9 June|1663|30 May}}, presenting an early version of [[Monadology|monadic]] substance theory. Leibniz earned his [[master's degree]] in Philosophy on 7 February 1664. In December 1664 he published and defended a [[dissertation]] ''Specimen Quaestionum Philosophicarum ex Jure collectarum'' (''An Essay of Collected Philosophical Problems of Right''),<ref name="Arthur p. x"/> arguing for both a theoretical and a pedagogical relationship between philosophy and law. After one year of legal studies, he was awarded his bachelor's degree in Law on 28 September 1665.<ref>Hubertus Busche, ''Leibniz' Weg ins perspektivische Universum: Eine Harmonie im Zeitalter der Berechnung'', Meiner Verlag, 1997, p. 120.</ref> His dissertation was titled ''De conditionibus'' (''On Conditions'').<ref name="Arthur p. x"/>

In early 1666, at age 19, Leibniz wrote his first book, ''[[De Arte Combinatoria]]'' (''On the Combinatorial Art''), the first part of which was also his [[habilitation]] thesis in Philosophy, which he defended in March 1666.<ref name="Arthur p. x"/><ref>A few copies of ''De Arte Combinatoria'' were produced as requested for the habilitation procedure; it was reprinted without his consent in 1690.</ref> ''De Arte Combinatoria'' was inspired by [[Ramon Llull]]'s ''[[Ars Magna (Ramon Llull)|Ars Magna]]'' and contained a [[proof of the existence of God]], cast in geometrical form, and based on the [[argument from motion]].{{citation needed|date=December 2024}}

His next goal was to earn his license and Doctorate in Law, which normally required three years of study. In 1666, the University of Leipzig turned down Leibniz's doctoral application and refused to grant him a Doctorate in Law, most likely due to his relative youth.<ref>{{cite book|last=Jolley|first=Nicholas|title=The Cambridge Companion to Leibniz|year=1995|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}:20</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Simmons|first=George|title=Calculus Gems: Brief Lives and Memorable Mathematics|url=https://archive.org/details/calculusgemsbrie0000simm|url-access=registration|year=2007|publisher=MAA}}:143</ref> Leibniz subsequently left Leipzig.<ref>Mackie (1845), 38</ref>

Leibniz then enrolled in the [[University of Altdorf]] and quickly submitted a thesis, which he had probably been working on earlier in Leipzig.<ref>Mackie (1845), 39</ref> The title of his thesis was ''Disputatio Inauguralis de Casibus Perplexis in Jure'' (''Inaugural Disputation on Ambiguous Legal Cases'').<ref name="Arthur p. x"/> Leibniz earned his license to practice law and his Doctorate in Law in November 1666. He next declined the offer of an academic appointment at Altdorf, saying that "my thoughts were turned in an entirely different direction".<ref>Mackie (1845), 40</ref>

As an adult, Leibniz often introduced himself as "Gottfried [[von]] Leibniz". Many posthumously published editions of his writings presented his name on the title page as "[[Freiherr]] G. W. von Leibniz." However, no document has ever been found from any contemporary government that stated his appointment to any form of [[nobility]].<ref>Aiton 1985: 312</ref>

===1666–1676<!--linked from the lead section-->===
[[File:Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz c1700.jpg|thumb|Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz]]
Leibniz's first position was as a salaried secretary to an [[alchemy|alchemical]] society in [[Nuremberg]].<ref>Ariew R., G.W. Leibniz, life and works, p. 21 in ''The Cambridge Companion to Leibniz'', ed. by N. Jolley, Cambridge University Press, 1994, {{isbn|0-521-36588-0}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=SnRis5Gdi8gC&pg=PA21 Extract of page 21]</ref> He knew fairly little about the subject at that time but presented himself as deeply learned. He soon met [[Johann Christian von Boyneburg]] (1622–1672), the dismissed chief minister of the [[Prince-elector|Elector]] of [[Mainz]], [[Johann Philipp von Schönborn]].<ref>Mackie (1845), 43</ref> Von Boyneburg hired Leibniz as an assistant, and shortly thereafter reconciled with the Elector and introduced Leibniz to him. Leibniz then dedicated an essay on law to the Elector in the hope of obtaining employment. The stratagem worked; the Elector asked Leibniz to assist with the redrafting of the legal code for the Electorate.<ref>Mackie (1845), 44–45</ref> In 1669, Leibniz was appointed assessor in the Court of Appeal. Although von Boyneburg died late in 1672, Leibniz remained under the employment of his widow until she dismissed him in 1674.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Benaroya |first1=Haym |last2=Han |first2=Seon Mi |last3=Nagurka |first3=Mark |title=Probabilistic Models for Dynamical Systems |date=2 May 2013 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-1-4398-5015-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rYEqBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA135 |language=en}}</ref>

Von Boyneburg did much to promote Leibniz's reputation, and the latter's memoranda and letters began to attract favorable notice. After Leibniz's service to the Elector there soon followed a diplomatic role. He published an essay, under the pseudonym of a fictitious Polish nobleman, arguing (unsuccessfully) for the German candidate for the Polish crown. The main force in European geopolitics during Leibniz's adult life was the ambition of [[Louis XIV of France]], backed by French military and economic might. Meanwhile, the [[Thirty Years' War]] had left [[German language in Europe|German-speaking Europe]] exhausted, fragmented, and economically backward. Leibniz proposed to protect German-speaking Europe by distracting Louis as follows: France would be invited to take [[Egypt]] as a stepping stone towards an eventual conquest of the [[Dutch East Indies]]. In return, France would agree to leave Germany and the Netherlands undisturbed. This plan obtained the Elector's cautious support. In 1672, the French government invited Leibniz to Paris for discussion,<ref>Mackie (1845), 58–61</ref> but the plan was soon overtaken by the outbreak of the [[Franco-Dutch War]] and became irrelevant. Napoleon's [[French campaign in Egypt and Syria|failed invasion of Egypt in 1798]] can be seen as an unwitting, late implementation of Leibniz's plan, after the Eastern hemisphere colonial supremacy in Europe had already passed from the Dutch to the British.

Thus Leibniz went to Paris in 1672. Soon after arriving, he met Dutch physicist and mathematician [[Christiaan Huygens]] and realised that his own knowledge of mathematics and physics was patchy. With Huygens as his mentor, he began a program of [[self-study]] that soon pushed him to making major contributions to both subjects, including discovering his version of the differential and integral [[calculus]]. He met [[Nicolas Malebranche]] and [[Antoine Arnauld]], the leading French philosophers of the day, and studied the writings of [[Descartes]] and [[Blaise Pascal|Pascal]], unpublished as well as published.<ref>{{Cite SEP|url-id=leibniz|title=Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz|date=July 24, 2013|edition=Spring 2020|last=Look|first=Brandon C.}}</ref> He befriended a German mathematician, [[Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus]]; they corresponded for the rest of their lives.{{citation needed|date=December 2024}}

[[File:Leibnitzrechenmaschine.jpg|thumb|[[Stepped reckoner]]]]

When it became clear that France would not implement its part of Leibniz's Egyptian plan, the Elector sent his nephew, escorted by Leibniz, on a related mission to the English government in London, early in 1673.<ref>Mackie (1845), 69–70</ref> There Leibniz came into acquaintance of [[Henry Oldenburg]] and [[John Collins (mathematician)|John Collins]]. He met with the [[Royal Society]] where he demonstrated a calculating machine that he had designed and had been building since 1670. The machine was able to execute all four basic operations (adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing), and the society quickly made him an external member.{{citation needed|date=December 2024}}

The mission ended abruptly when news of the Elector's death (12 February 1673) reached them. Leibniz promptly returned to Paris and not, as had been planned, to Mainz.<ref>Mackie (1845), 73–74</ref> The sudden deaths of his two patrons in the same winter meant that Leibniz had to find a new basis for his career.{{citation needed|date=December 2024}}

In this regard, a 1669 invitation from Duke [[John Frederick, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg|John Frederick]] of [[Brunswick-Lüneburg|Brunswick]] to visit Hanover proved to have been fateful. Leibniz had declined the invitation, but had begun corresponding with the duke in 1671. In 1673, the duke offered Leibniz the post of counsellor. Leibniz very reluctantly accepted the position two years later, only after it became clear that no employment was forthcoming in Paris, whose intellectual stimulation he relished, or with the [[Habsburg]] imperial court.<ref name="CRC Press">{{cite book|last1=Davis|first1=Martin|title=The Universal Computer : The Road from Leibniz to Turing|year=2018|publisher=CRC Press|isbn=978-1-138-50208-6|pages=9}}</ref>

In 1675 he tried to get admitted to the [[French Academy of Sciences]] as a foreign honorary member, but it was considered that there were already enough foreigners there and so no invitation came. He left Paris in October 1676.

===House of Hanover, 1676–1716===
[[File:Leibniz Hannover.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Public Library of Hanover, 1703]]
Leibniz managed to delay his arrival in Hanover until the end of 1676 after making one more short journey to London, where Newton accused him of having seen his unpublished work on calculus in advance.<ref>On the encounter between Newton and Leibniz and a review of the evidence, see Alfred Rupert Hall, ''Philosophers at War: The Quarrel Between Newton and Leibniz'', (Cambridge, 2002), pp. 44–69.</ref> This was alleged to be evidence supporting the accusation, made decades later, that he had stolen calculus from Newton. On the journey from London to Hanover, Leibniz stopped in [[The Hague]] where he met [[van Leeuwenhoek]], the discoverer of microorganisms. He also spent several days in intense discussion with [[Baruch Spinoza|Spinoza]], who had just completed, but had not published, his masterwork, the ''[[Ethics (Spinoza)|Ethics]]''.<ref>Mackie (1845), 117–118</ref> Spinoza died very shortly after Leibniz's visit.

In 1677, he was promoted, at his request, to Privy Counselor of Justice, a post he held for the rest of his life. Leibniz served three consecutive rulers of the House of Brunswick as historian, political adviser, and most consequentially, as librarian of the [[duke|ducal]] library. He thenceforth employed his pen on all the various political, historical, and [[theological]] matters involving the House of Brunswick; the resulting documents form a valuable part of the historical record for the period.

Leibniz began promoting a project to use windmills to improve the mining operations in the Harz Mountains. This project did little to improve mining operations and was shut down by Duke Ernst August in 1685.<ref name="CRC Press"/>

Among the few people in north Germany to accept Leibniz were the Electress [[Sophia of Hanover]] (1630–1714), her daughter [[Sophia Charlotte of Hanover]] (1668–1705), the Queen of Prussia and his avowed disciple, and [[Caroline of Ansbach]], the consort of her grandson, the future [[George II of Great Britain|George II]]. To each of these women he was correspondent, adviser, and friend. In turn, they all approved of Leibniz more than did their spouses and the future king [[George I of Great Britain]].<ref>For a study of Leibniz's correspondence with Sophia Charlotte, see MacDonald Ross, George, 1990, "Leibniz's Exposition of His System to Queen Sophie Charlotte and Other Ladies." In ''Leibniz in Berlin'', ed. H. Poser and A. Heinekamp, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1990, 61–69.</ref>

The population of Hanover was only about 10,000, and its provinciality eventually grated on Leibniz. Nevertheless, to be a major courtier to the House of [[Brunswick-Lüneburg|Brunswick]] was quite an honor, especially in light of the meteoric rise in the prestige of that House during Leibniz's association with it. In 1692, the Duke of Brunswick became a hereditary Elector of the [[Holy Roman Empire]]. The British [[Act of Settlement 1701]] designated the Electress Sophia and her descent as the royal family of England, once both King [[William III of England|William III]] and his sister-in-law and successor, [[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Queen Anne]], were dead. Leibniz played a role in the initiatives and negotiations leading up to that Act, but not always an effective one. For example, something he published anonymously in England, thinking to promote the Brunswick cause, was formally censured by the [[British Parliament]].

The Brunswicks tolerated the enormous effort Leibniz devoted to intellectual pursuits unrelated to his duties as a courtier, pursuits such as perfecting calculus, writing about other mathematics, logic, physics, and philosophy, and keeping up a vast correspondence. He began working on calculus in 1674; the earliest evidence of its use in his surviving notebooks is 1675. By 1677 he had a coherent system in hand, but did not publish it until 1684. Leibniz's most important mathematical papers were published between 1682 and 1692, usually in a journal which he and [[Otto Mencke]] founded in 1682, the ''[[Acta Eruditorum]]''. That journal played a key role in advancing his mathematical and scientific reputation, which in turn enhanced his eminence in diplomacy, history, theology, and philosophy.

[[File:Korespondencja Gottfrieda Leibniza.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|Pages from Leibniz's papers in the [[National Library of Poland]]]]

The Elector [[Ernest Augustus, Elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg|Ernest Augustus]] commissioned Leibniz to write a history of the House of Brunswick, going back to the time of [[Charlemagne]] or earlier, hoping that the resulting book would advance his dynastic ambitions. From 1687 to 1690, Leibniz traveled extensively in Germany, Austria, and Italy, seeking and finding archival materials bearing on this project. Decades went by but no history appeared; the next Elector became quite annoyed at Leibniz's apparent dilatoriness. Leibniz never finished the project, in part because of his huge output on many other fronts, but also because he insisted on writing a meticulously researched and erudite book based on archival sources, when his patrons would have been quite happy with a short popular book, one perhaps little more than a [[genealogy]] with commentary, to be completed in three years or less. They never knew that he had in fact carried out a fair part of his assigned task: when the material Leibniz had written and collected for his history of the House of Brunswick was finally published in the 19th century, it filled three volumes.

Leibniz was appointed Librarian of the [[Herzog August Library]] in [[Wolfenbüttel]], [[Lower Saxony]], in 1691.

In 1708, [[John Keill]], writing in the journal of the Royal Society and with Newton's presumed blessing, accused Leibniz of having plagiarised Newton's calculus.<ref>Mackie (1845), 109</ref> Thus began the [[Newton v. Leibniz calculus controversy|calculus priority dispute]] which darkened the remainder of Leibniz's life. A formal investigation by the Royal Society (in which Newton was an unacknowledged participant), undertaken in response to Leibniz's demand for a retraction, upheld Keill's charge. Historians of mathematics writing since 1900 or so have tended to acquit Leibniz, pointing to important differences between Leibniz's and Newton's versions of calculus.

In 1712, Leibniz began a two-year residence in [[Vienna]], where he was appointed [[Reichshofrat|Imperial Court Councillor]] to the [[Habsburg]]s. On the death of Queen Anne in 1714, Elector George Louis became King [[George I of Great Britain]], under the terms of the 1701 Act of Settlement. Even though Leibniz had done much to bring about this happy event, it was not to be his hour of glory. Despite the intercession of the Princess of Wales, Caroline of Ansbach, George I forbade Leibniz to join him in London until he completed at least one volume of the history of the Brunswick family his father had commissioned nearly 30 years earlier. Moreover, for George I to include Leibniz in his London court would have been deemed insulting to Newton, who was seen as having won the calculus priority dispute and whose standing in British official circles could not have been higher. Finally, his dear friend and defender, the Dowager Electress Sophia, died in 1714. In 1716, while traveling in northern Europe, the Russian [[Tsar]] [[Peter I of Russia|Peter the Great]] stopped in [[Bad Pyrmont]] and met Leibniz, who took interest in Russian matters since 1708 and was appointed advisor in 1711.<ref>Ayton, Leibniz, a biography, p. 308</ref>

===Death===
Leibniz died in [[Hanover]] in 1716. At the time, he was so out of favor that neither George I (who happened to be near Hanover at that time) nor any fellow courtier other than his personal secretary attended the funeral. Even though Leibniz was a life member of the Royal Society and the [[Prussian Academy of Sciences|Berlin Academy of Sciences]], neither organization saw fit to honor his death. His grave went unmarked for more than 50 years. He was, however, eulogized by [[Bernard de Fontenelle|Fontenelle]], before the [[French Academy of Sciences]] in Paris, which had admitted him as a foreign member in 1700. The eulogy was composed at the behest of the [[Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess Palatine|Duchess of Orleans]], a niece of the Electress Sophia.

===Personal life===
Leibniz never married. He proposed to an unknown woman at age 50, but changed his mind when she took too long to decide.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brown |first1=Stuart |title=Historical Dictionary of Leibniz's Philosophy |date=2023 |publisher=Rowman and Littlefield |location=Lanham |isbn=9781538178447 |page=1 |edition=2nd}}</ref> He complained on occasion about money, but the fair sum he left to his sole heir, his sister's stepson, proved that the Brunswicks had paid him fairly well. In his diplomatic endeavors, he at times verged on the unscrupulous, as was often the case with professional diplomats of his day. On several occasions, Leibniz backdated and altered personal manuscripts, actions which put him in a bad light during the [[Newton v. Leibniz calculus controversy|calculus controversy]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Leibniz|first=Gottfried Wilhelm Freiherr von|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bOIGAAAAYAAJ&q=leibniz+altered+manuscripts&pg=PA90|title=The Early Mathematical Manuscripts of Leibniz: Translated from the Latin Texts Published by Carl Immanuel Gerhardt with Critical and Historical Notes|date=1920|publisher=Open court publishing Company|isbn=9780598818461 |language=en}}</ref>

He was charming, well-mannered, and not without humor and imagination.<ref>See Wir IV.6 and Loemker §50. Also see a curious passage titled "Leibniz's Philosophical Dream", first published by Bodemann in 1895 and translated on p. 253 of Morris, Mary, ed. and trans., 1934. ''Philosophical Writings''. Dent & Sons Ltd.</ref> He had many friends and admirers all over Europe. He was identified as a [[Protestant]] and a [[philosophical theism|philosophical theist]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Christian Mathematicians – Leibniz – God & Math – Thinking Christianly About Math Education|url=http://godandmath.com/2012/01/30/christian-mathematicians-leibniz/|date=2012-01-31}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Discourse on Metaphysics and Other Writings|year=2012|publisher=Broadview Press|isbn=978-1-55481-011-6|pages=23–24|author=Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz|editor-first=Peter|editor-last=Loptson|quote=The answer is unknowable, but it may not be unreasonable to see him, at least in theological terms, as essentially a deist. He is a determinist: there are no miracles (the events so called being merely instances of infrequently occurring natural laws); Christ has no real role in the system; we live forever, and hence we carry on after our deaths, but then everything—every individual substance—carries on forever. Nonetheless, Leibniz is a theist. His system is generated from, and needs, the postulate of a creative god. In fact, though, despite Leibniz's protestations, his God is more the architect and engineer of the vast complex world-system than the embodiment of love of Christian orthodoxy.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Owen's Ape & Darwin's Bulldog: Beyond Darwinism and Creationism|year=2009|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-22051-6|pages=102–103|author=Christopher Ernest Cosans|quote=In advancing his system of mechanics, Newton claimed that collisions of celestial objects would cause a loss of energy that would require God to intervene from time to time to maintain order in the solar system (Vailati 1997, 37–42). In criticizing this implication, Leibniz remarks: "Sir Isaac Newton and his followers have also a very odd opinion concerning the work of God. According to their doctrine, God Almighty wants to wind up his watch from time to time; otherwise it would cease to move." (Leibniz 1715, 675) Leibniz argues that any scientific theory that relies on God to perform miracles after He had first made the universe indicates that God lacked sufficient foresight or power to establish adequate natural laws in the first place. In defense of Newton's theism, Clarke is unapologetic: "'tis not a diminution but the true glory of his workmanship that nothing is done without his continual government and inspection"' (Leibniz 1715, 676–677). Clarke is believed to have consulted closely with Newton on how to respond to Leibniz. He asserts that Leibniz's deism leads to "the notion of materialism and fate" (1715, 677), because it excludes God from the daily workings of nature.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Controversy in Marketing Theory: For Reason, Realism, Truth, and Objectivity|year=2003|publisher=M. E. Sharpe|isbn=978-0-7656-0931-1|first=Shelby D.|last=Hunt|page=33|quote=Consistent with the liberal views of the Enlightenment, Leibniz was an optimist with respect to human reasoning and scientific progress (Popper 1963, p. 69). Although he was a great reader and admirer of Spinoza, Leibniz, being a confirmed deist, rejected emphatically Spinoza's pantheism: God and nature, for Leibniz, were not simply two different "labels" for the same "thing".}}</ref> Leibniz remained committed to [[Trinitarian Christianity]] throughout his life.<ref>Leibniz on the Trinity and the Incarnation: Reason and Revelation in the Seventeenth Century (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007, pp. xix–xx).</ref>