My name is Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, and I was born in 1646 on July 1 in Leipzig, Germany. I am a philosopher and mathematician, even so I foresaw ideas that appeared later in probability theory, linguistic, psychology, physics, information science, biology, geology, and medicine.I am, besides Rene Descartes and Baruch Spinoza, one of the three great rationalists of the 17th century. By the age of twenty, I wrote a Dissertation on the Art of Combination, which allows me to lecture in philosophy.

In 1676, after specializing in law and taking other required courses such as logic, classics, theology, mathematics and the New natural philosophy of the Enlightenment, I received a doctorate of law-although my mathematical knowledge was below the French and British standards.

I discovered, working separately from Isaac Newton, the infinitesimal calculus and I created the notation that is used in calculus today, and I also created the binary number system that is used today on most computers.

The Royal Society made a external member after they were awed by a calculating machine I showed them that was capable of performing more complex mathematical operations than the earlier calculating machine created by Blaise Pascal.

Even though I wrote numerous articles and one book, the Théodicée, there are still several other articles unpublished.

The first position I held was as an alchemist, in Nuremberg. Nonetheless, in 1669 I was chosen Assessor in the Court of Appeal. In 1672, the French government invited me to Paris to discuss a plan I created (what they did not know was that I only wanted to protect Germany by distracting their king, Louis XIV of France). In Paris, I met the physicist and mathematician Christiaan Huygens, who taugh me the mathematics skills that led me to invent a version of the differential and integral calculus; and I met the mathematician Ehrenfreid Walther von Tschirnhaus, who became one of my closest friends. In 1674, I moved to Hanover to work in the house of Brunswick, in which I earned a generous salary and I had more time available to pursue my own interests.

I influenced other philosophers such as Immanuel Kant and Edmund Husserl, the mathematician Bernhard Riemann, the quantum physicist David Bohm, I founded the Berlin Academy of Sciences because I strongly believe that scientists should cooperate with one another, and in 1985, the German government established the Leibniz Prize, which awards the world’s largest reward for scientific accomplishments.

Works cited:

http://www.wikipedia.org/ “Gottfried Leibniz.”

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leibniz>

Arrroyo, Christopher. “Leibniz, G. W..” Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics. 2005. Gale Virtual Reference Library

<http://ezproxy.ncc.edu:2224/gvrl/start.do?prodId=GVRL&userGroupName=sunynassau>

“Leibniz or Leibnitz, Gottfried Wilhelm, Baron von.” The Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia University Press, 2000. 22481. General OneFile. Gale. Nassau Community College Library – SUNY. 2 Nov. 2007

<http://find.galegroup.com/itx/start.do?prodId=ITOF>.