Leibniz, the Discoverer of the

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, also known as Baron Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz was born in 1646 and died in 1716. A German philosopher, mathematician, and statesman, Leibniz was regarded as one of the supreme intellects of the 17th century. Born in Leipzig, Germany, Leibniz was educated at the universities of Leipzig, Jena, and Altdorf. Beginning in 1666, the year in which he was awarded a doctorate in law, he served Johann Philipp von Schönborn, archbishop elector of Mainz, …

…satirized as a utopia by the French author Voltaire in his novel Candide (1759). Important philosophical works by Leibniz include Essays in Theodicy on the Goodness of God, the Liberty of Man, and the Origin of Evil (2 volumes, 1710; translated in Philosophical Works,1890), Monadology (1714; published in Latin as Principia Philosophiae,1721; translated 1890), and New Essays Concerning Human Understanding (1703; published 1765; translated 1916). The latter two greatly influenced German philosophers of the 18th century, including Christian von Wolff and Immanuel Kant.