On November 14, 1716, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, one of the greatest thinkers of the 18th century, died.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a man of many talents. The German studied law at the age of 15. But he often went outside his area of expertise. He was also involved in, among other things, history, mathematics, physics, theology and philosophy. He was also a diplomat, political advisor and built calculators. Leibniz is considered one of the greatest thinkers of the 18th century.
In mathematics, Leibniz was one of the founders of differential and integral calculus. At the same time, Isaac Newton had the same ideas and the two scientists argued for years about who was first.
In 1713, a group of researchers from the Royal Society (British Academy of Sciences) decided that Leibniz had plagiarized Newton’s work. It should be noted that Newton was the President of the Royal Society at the time. Until his death on November 14, 1716, Leibniz denied that Newton had previously developed mathematical principles. Today it is assumed that both gentlemen developed the ideas independently of each other.
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Sources: Britannica, filosofie.nl
Photo: Christoph Bernhard Francke/public domain