Gottfried W. Leibniz

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was born on July 1, 1646 in Leipzig, Germany. His father, Friedrich Leibniz, was the Professor of Moral Philosophy and the Chairman of the faculty of philosophy at Leipzig University. He was also a lawyer and notary register. Gottfried’s mother, Catharina nee Schmuck, was his third wife.

Gottfried was the elder of his parents’ two children, having a younger sister named Anna Katharina Leibniz Löffler. From his father’s two previous marriages, he also had five half-siblings; Anna Rosina Leibniz, Johann Friedrich Leibniz, Elisabeth Leibniz, Anna Magdalena Leibniz, and Susanna Leibniz.

His father died in 1652. Thereafter, he was brought up by his mother, gaining his moral and religious values from her. These would one day play an important part in his philosophy.

In 1653, he was admitted to Nicolai School in Leipzig, where his education was confined mainly to the study of a small canon of authorities. But at home, he had his father’s vast library opened to him and there he started reading books much advanced for his age.

By the age of twelve, Gottfried had taught himself advanced Latin and also a little bit of Greek in order to read his father’s collection of books. By thirteen, he had gained enough expertise to be able to compose 300 hexameters of Latin verses for a school event.

In 1667, on completion of his education, Leibniz received an offer from the University of Altdorf for an academic post; but as he had other ideas and dreams, he declined the offer. Instead, he took up the position of a salaried secretary to an alchemical society in Nuremberg.

In Nuremberg, he met Johann Christian von Boyneburg, who immediately became his mentor, introducing him to Elector of Mainz, Johann Philipp von Schönborn. Impressed with his knowledge of law, the Elector asked him to assist with the redrafting of the legal code, a position he happily accepted.

In 1669, Leibniz was appointed the Assessor in the Court of Appeal. In the same year, he received an invitation from John Frederick, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg to visit Hanover, but declined.

At that time, King Louis XIV of France was posing a serious threat to Germany, which was already devastated by the Thirty Year War. In 1670, Leibniz published a pamphlet, in which he proposed a defensive coalition of the northern European Protestant countries.

He also conceived a plan, through which he hoped to divert Louis XIV’s attention, by persuading him to engage in a holy war to non-Christian Egypt and later occupy territories under Dutch East Indies. This, he hoped would give Germany a chance to revive its economy.

With the death of Boyneburg in December 1672 and the Elector of Mainz in February 1673, Leibniz was left without a patron. Sometime in 1673, while he was living in Paris, Duke John Frederick of Brunswick offered him the post of counselor.

More interested in a position in Paris, Leibniz managed to delay his joining until December 1676. Meanwhile in late 1675, he laid the foundations of both integral and differential calculus; and by autumn 1676, he discovered the familiar d(xn) = nxn-1dx for both integral and fractional

Some time now, Newton, who was also working on the same subject, wrote a letter to Leibniz, in which he listed many of his results, without describing the methods. The letter took long time to reach Leibniz in Paris. Not realizing the situation, Leibniz thought he had time to answer the letter.

Newton’s letter also made him realize that he must quickly publish a fuller account of his own method, which he did. Newton wrote another letter, accusing Leibniz of stealing his formula. In his reply, Leibniz provided certain details on his work, but the conflict continued to persist.

Although he would have liked to remain in Paris with a position at the Academy of Science no such offer came his way mainly because there were already too many foreigners there. Therefore in October 1676, he left for Hanover, making short visit at England and Holland on the way.