![]() There is no complete gathering of the writings of Leibniz. He wrote in several languages, but primarily in Latin, French, and German. Leibniz's contributions to this vast array of subjects were scattered in various learned journals, in tens of thousands of letters, and in unpublished manuscripts. He wrote works on philosophy, politics, law, ethics, theology, history, and philology. Leibniz made major contributions to physics and technology, and anticipated notions that surfaced much later in philosophy, probability theory, biology, medicine, geology, psychology, linguistics, and computer science. The work of Leibniz anticipated modern logic and analytic philosophy, but his philosophy also looks back to the scholastic tradition, in which conclusions are produced by applying reason of first principles or prior definitions rather than to empirical evidence. Leibniz, along with René Descartes and Baruch Spinoza, was one of the three great 17th century advocates of rationalism. In philosophy, Leibniz is most noted for his optimism, i.e., his conclusion that our Universe is, in a restricted sense, the best possible one that God could have created, an idea that was often lampooned by others such as Voltaire. ![]() He also refined the binary number system, which is the foundation of virtually all digital computers. While working on adding automatic multiplication and division to Pascal's calculator, he was the first to describe a pinwheel calculator in 1685 and invented the Leibniz wheel, used in the arithmometer, the first mass-produced mechanical calculator. ![]() He became one of the most prolific inventors in the field of mechanical calculators. It was only in the 20th century that his Law of Continuity and Transcendental Law of Homogeneity found mathematical implementation (by means of non-standard analysis). ![]() Most scholars believe Leibniz developed calculus independently of Isaac Newton, and Leibniz's notation has been widely used ever since it was published. He occupies a prominent place in the history of mathematics and the history of philosophy. Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz was a German polymath and philosopher.
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