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Gottfried Leibniz biography at QuotationFun

A Short Biography of Gottfried Leibniz

Author Name:

Gottfried Leibniz

Born As:

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

Other Names:

Gottfried Wilhelm Von Leibniz

Born:

1646

Died:

1716




author picture 
Mathematician and philosopher                          
Selected works:

The Principles:

Leibniz variously invoked one or another of seven fundamental philosophical Principles:

Identity/contradiction. If a proposition is true, then its negation is false and vice versa.

Identity of indiscernibles. Two things are identical if and only if they share the same and only the same properties. Frequently invoked in modern logic and philosophy. The "identity of indiscernibles" is often referred to as Leibniz's Law. It has attracted the most controversy and criticism, especially from corpuscular philosophy and quantum mechanics.

Sufficient reason. "There must be a sufficient reason [often known only to God] for anything to exist, for any event to occur, for any truth to obtain."
Pre-established harmony. - "The appropriate nature of each substance brings it about that what happens to one corresponds to what happens to all the others, without, however, their acting upon one another directly." (Discourse on Metaphysics, XIV) A dropped glass shatters because it "knows" it has hit the ground, and not because the impact with the ground "compels" the glass to split.

Continuity. Natura non saltum facit. A mathematical analog to this principle would proceed as follows: if a function describes a transformation of something to which continuity applies, then its domain and range are both dense sets.

Optimism. "God assuredly always chooses the best."

Plenitude. "Leibniz believed that the best of all possible worlds would actualize every genuine possibility, and argued in Théodicée that this best of all possible worlds will contain all possibilities, with our finite experience of eternity giving no reason to dispute nature's perfection."
Leibniz would on occasion give a speech for a specific principle, but more often took them for granted.                          
Mother Catherina Schmuck
Father Friedrich Leibniz                          
                          
Many posthumous editions of his works gave his name on the title page as "Freiherr [Baron] G. W. von Leibniz." No document has been found confirming that he was ever granted a patent of nobility.