Leibniz: An Intellectual Biography

by Maria Rosa Antognazza

• ISBN13: 9780521806190
• ISBN10: 0521806194
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-10-06
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Of all the thinkers of the century of genius that inaugurated modern philosophy, none lived an intellectual life more rich and varied than Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716). Trained as a jurist and employed as a counsellor, librarian, and historian, he made famous contributions to logic, mathematics, physics, and metaphysics, yet viewed his own aspirations as ultimately ethical and theological, and married these theoretical concerns with politics, diplomacy, and an equally broad range of practical reforms: juridical, economic, administrative, technological, medical, and ecclesiastical. Maria Rosa Antognazza's pioneering biography not only surveys the full breadth and depth of these theoretical interests and practical activities, it also weaves them together for the first time into a unified portrait of this unique thinker and the world from which he came. At the centre of the huge range of Leibniz's apparently miscellaneous endeavours, Antognazza reveals a single master project lending unity to his extraordinarily multifaceted life's work. Throughout the vicissitudes of his long life, Leibniz tenaciously pursued the dream of a systematic reform and advancement of all the sciences, to be undertaken as a collaborative enterprise supported by an enlightened ruler; these theoretical pursuits were in turn ultimately grounded in a practical goal: the improvement of the human condition and thereby the celebration of the glory of God in His creation. As well as tracing the threads of continuity that bound these theoretical and practical activities to this all-embracing plan, this illuminating study also traces these threads back into the intellectual traditions of the Holy Roman Empire in which Leibniz lived and throughout the broader intellectual networks that linked him to patrons in countries as distant as Russia and to correspondents as far afield as China.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. xi
Abbreviations	p. xiii
Chronological Table	p. xvii
Introduction	p. 1
Youthful Vocations (1646-1676)
The Birth of a Vision: Background, Childhood, and Education (July 1646-February 1667)	p. 17
War and Peace: Problems and Prospects	p. 17
Leibniz's Family and Leipzig's Religion	p. 24
Formal Schooling and Independent Learning	p. 30
The Rudiments of Logic and the Alphabet of Human Thoughts	p. 37
Scholastic Philosophy and Irenical Theology	p. 46
Ancient Metaphysics and Modern Physics: The Universities of Leipzig and Jena, April 1661-October 1663	p. 50
The Legal Studies of an Encyclopaedist: Leipzig and Altdorf, October 1663-February 1667	p. 59
The Vision Broadens: Nuremberg, Frankfurt, and Mainz (March 1667-March 1672)	p. 79
Nuremberg, Frankfurt, and Mainz	p. 80
Leibniz's Great Plan: The Demonstrationes Catholicae and Their Prolegomena	p. 90
Logic, the Characteristica Universalis, and Scientific Collaboration	p. 92
Metaphysics and Physics	p. 100
Ethics and Politics	p. 113
Theology	p. 118
The Road to Paris	p. 123
Old Wine in New Bottles: Paris, London, and Holland (March 1672-December 1676)	p. 139
First Steps in Paris (March 1672-January 1673)	p. 140
The First Visit to London (End January-End February 1673)	p. 148
Paris: The Middle Period (March 1673-October 1675)	p. 151
The Last Year in Paris (October 1675-October 1676)	p. 163
Back to Germany via London and Holland	p. 176
Dreams and Reality (1676-1716)
A Universal Genius as Librarian, Historian, and Mining Engineer: Hanover and Lower Saxony (December 1676-October 1687)	p. 195
Under Duke Johann Friedrich: December 1676-December 1679	p. 197
Under Duke Ernst August: January 1680-October 1687	p. 214
Leibniz's Great Plan: From the Demonstrationes Catholicae to the Scientia Generalis and the Demonstrative Encyclopaedia	p. 233
Logic and Mathematics	p. 241
Metaphysics and Physics	p. 247
Theology	p. 256
Ethics and Jurisprudence	p. 259
In the Footsteps of the Guelfs: Southern Germany, Austria, and Italy (November 1687-June 1690)	p. 281
Central and Southern Germany (November 1687-May 1688)	p. 284
Vienna (May 1688-February 1689)	p. 290
Italy (March 1689-March 1690)	p. 299
Return to Hanover (March-June 1690)	p. 309
Back under the Guelf Dukes: Hanover and Wolfenbuttel (June 1690-February 1698)	p. 320
At the Service of the Guelf Dukes	p. 323
Orthodoxy and Heresy	p. 338
Physics, Metaphysics, and Mathematics	p. 345
Force, Monads, and Pre-Established Harmony: The Public Offensive of the Mid-90s	p. 345
Dark Clouds on the Mathematical Horizon	p. 355
Unus ex nihilo omnia fecit	p. 357
Leibniz's Multiculturalism: China, Russia, and Linguistic Studies	p. 359
The Events of 1697 and the Protestant Cause	p. 365
Between Brother and Sister: Hanover and Berlin (February 1698-February 1705)	p. 381
The Tie of Hanover and the Pull of Berlin	p. 383
Negotium Irenicum	p. 398
Philosophy and Mathematics	p. 406
Reading Locke	p. 406
Clashes with Toland and Bayle	p. 418
Debating Metaphysics and the Foundations of Ethics	p. 421
The Escalation of the Calculus War	p. 428
Mathematical Facets of the Characteristica Universalis	p. 431
Sophie Charlotte's Death	p. 436
Light and Shadows: Hanover, Berlin, Wolfenbuttel, Vienna (February 1705-September 1714)	p. 458
Leibniz Networking	p. 460
Private and Public Debates: Mathematical, Scientific, and Philosophical	p. 473
A Commerce of Light by Correspondence	p. 473
The "Forerunner" of Leibniz's Great Synthesis	p. 479
From Bad to Worse in the Calculus War	p. 486
At the Court of the Emperor (December 1712-September 1714)	p. 488
Broadsides between Mathematicians	p. 495
Two Pamphlets on Monads	p. 498
Return to Hanover	p. 503
Epilogue: Last Years in Hanover (September 1714-November 1716)	p. 521
Unfinished Business	p. 522
Last Battles with Newton and the Newtonians	p. 531
Unending Progress	p. 538
Inclinata Resurget	p. 543
Appendix	p. 557
Bibliography	p. 565
Index	p. 601
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