LEIBNITZ, llb'nitz, Gottfried Wilhelm von, the most universal scientific genius of modern times: in Leipzig, 21 June 1646; d. Hanover, 14 Nov. 1716. He early lost his father, a professor of moral philosophy in the local university, and depended for his childish education mainly upon undirected omnivorous private reading. Having passed through the University of Leipzig, he graduated doctor of laws from Altdorf, near Nuremberg, in 1666, and passed almost at once into the service of the archbishop elector of Main; arch-chan cellor of the empire, in whose interests he be gan the series of attempts to find a basis for the reunion of Western Christendom which oc cupied him at intervals through a great part of his life. In 1672 Leibnitz was dispatched to Paris in the hope that he might be able to pro mote the interests of the German states by diverting the ambitions of Louis XIV toward the conquest of Egypt. The mission failed of its intended effect, but the residence of Leibnitz in Paris, between 1672 and 1676, which was only broken by a brief visit to London in 1673, was of the utmost importance for the develop ment of his thought, as it brought him into con tact with the chief living exponents of Car tesianism, Arnauld and Malebranche, as well as with Huygens and other leading mathematicians. From this period date Leibnitz's critical study of Cartesianism and his introduction to higher mathematics, of which the first result was his discovery of the fundamental notions of the infinitesimal calculus. This discovery, made in 1675, was announced in 1676 to Newton, who promptly replied that he had for years been in possession of methods (the °method of flux leading to the same results as those of his correspondent. The nature of these methods was however disguised in a couple of anagrams. Leibnitz did not actually publish his discovery until 1684; Newton's method was only given to the world in 1693. Leibnitz's later years were unfortunately much disturbed by a bitter controversy, which reflects little credit on either party, with the friends of Newton, who accused him of having stolen the idea of the calculus from papers of Newton's seen during his visit to England. It is now generally ad
mitted that this charge, which was never made by Newton himself, was quite baseless, and that though Newton had elaborated his methods for private use as early as 1665, the discovery of Leibnitz was entirely independent, while his notation was so much more convenient that it has completely replaced that of his great rival, even in England.
On the termination of his residence in Paris Leibnitz spent several weeks in Holland in close communication with Spinoza, then living at The Hague, where he died in the following spring (1677). It appears that the two thinkers had repeated philosophical discussions, and that Leibnitz was even allowed to see the jealously guarded manuscript of Spinoza's 'Ethics.' His subsequent misrepresentation of the extent of this intercourse with the greatest thinker of the previous generation, which has only been ex posed within recent years, is perhaps the great est blot on •Leibnitz's character. Leibnitz had already been deprived of his diplomatic position by the death of the Elector of Mainz in 1673. He now (1676) accepted from Johann Fried rich, Duke of Brunswick, the post of court librarian at Hanover, which he filled fot she rest of his life. Much of his time was hence forward taken up with public affairs and with preparation for a history of the House of Brunswick, in connection with which he spent two years (1687-89) in research in the archives of Austria and Italy. He negotiated long, but to no result, with Bossuet and Spinoza for the .reunion of the Roman and Reformed churches, did much to promote the mining industry of •the Harz district, and in especial labored to advance the organization of scientific research by the foundation of academies. The sole di rect result of these last exertions was the cre ation in 1702 of the Berlin Academy with Lieb nitt as its first president. Plans for similar in stitutions in Dresden, Vienna and Saint Peters burg proved abortive.