http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leibniz
Gottfried Leibniz (1 July 1646 [OS: 21 June] – 14 November 1716) was one of the greats because of his integration of sciences, not to mention his white knuckle ability for work.
Over the course of his years he invented binary, which every computer in the world uses in the present day. He also pretty much single handedly invented Library Sciences, and it was his integration of maths that led him to invent the Calculus independently and before Newton. Americans still use Leibnizian notation.
Leibniz worked nonstop over the course of his life, often travelling as he did it. Various other contributions to sciences such as politics, geometry, geology, engineering, and even poetry were all pretty abundant. He invented one of the first calculators.
Working more than probably anyone else of his era, the extent of Leibniz's works have still not been assessed and translated 400 years later. It is possible that Leibniz has other ideas as good as some of his computer solutions lost in his papers.
As for his philosophical contributions, Leibniz re-systemized logic. This paved the way for analytic truth ventures. His Principle of Identity and Principle of Sufficient Reason are really cool. He also made some pretty good cases for Free Will being Compatible with rigid Scientific Organization, or Determinism if you will.
A tremendous leader in so many fields, Leibniz established some of the first German academies of sciences, which would forge Germany into a world power in the 19th and 20th centuries.
If I may speak freely here, I might say that Leibniz was really angry about people being unable to recognize the wonders of this world. He put the problem out there as noumena versus phenomena, whereupon we could know the real essences of things. His theory of Pre-established harmony reminded people that things happen for a reason and we can trust those reasons.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
The Moderns! continued (Part II)
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1) For peace in Western Religions, specifically Christianity, you might want to look at the "Rise of Christianity" chapter of Sociologist Rodney Stark's Discovering God which talks about what attracted so many followers to early Christianity. He also has a whole book titled "The Rise of Christianity" which I haven't read yet.
ReplyDeleteStark is now a Christian, but was not at the time when he wrote most of his books about Christianity. He says he was a "cultural Christian" (notorious anti-theist Richard Dawkins calls himself a "cultural Christian" as well) an "admirer" but not a believer, until maybe 2005 when he decided he was a believer too. Stark doesn't deal just with Peacemaking, but he does talk about the respect for life, dignity of women, and radical love exhibited by early Christians. Off the top of my head, I remember one of the Roman Emperors (Julian) Stark quoted who was a particularly avid persecutor saying of the Christians, "They
take care not only of their own poor, but of ours as well." And when the empire was being decimated by plague, instead of fleeing, many
Christians stayed to take care of the sick...and consequently contracted plague themselves. There's a lot of other good stuff in Stark, and the chapter I mentioned is brief enough to read in one or two sittings. Another
interesting book I'm currently reading is "Christian Jihad" by two former Muslims, Erwin and Ergun Caner who give a kind of history of
peace and warfare in western religions, but especially within Christianity
2) Leibniz is interesting also for his philosophy and his approach to the "Problem of Evil." He's also the brunt of Voltaire's Candide where he is represented as "Dr. Pangloss." I like the humor, but I don't think Voltaire does him justice. Two Leibniz quotes that I find thought provoking:
“…if we were able to understand sufficiently well the order of the universe, we should find that it surpasses all the desires of the wisest of us, and that it is impossible to render it better than it is, not only for all in general, but also for each one of us in
particular…” – Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, from The Monadology, 1714,
quoted: http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/leibnitz.htm.
"The infinite wisdom of the Almighty allied with his boundless goodness has brought it about that nothing better could have been
created, everything taken into account, than what God has created. As a consequence all things are in perfect harmony and conspire in the most beautiful way…Whenever therefore, some detail of the work of God appears to us reprehensible, we should judge that we do not know enough about it and that according to the wise who would understand it, nothing better could even be desired…” – Gottfried Wilhelm
Leibniz, A Vindication of God’s Justice Reconciled with His Other
Perfections and All His Actions, Sections 46-47.