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  “莱布尼茨”重定向至此。关于其他用法，请见“莱布尼茨 (消歧义)”。

戈特弗里德·威廉·莱布尼茨
莱布尼茨
出生	1646年7月1日 德国莱比锡
逝世	1716年11月14日(70岁) 德国汉诺威
时代	17世纪哲学家
地区	西方哲学家
学派	理性主义
主要领域	数学、认识论、形而上学、科学、神义论
著名思想	单子论
受影响于 柏拉图、笛卡尔、亚里士多德、经院哲学、卢尔（Ramon Llull）、惠更斯
影响于 康德、沃尔夫、罗素、德勒兹、亚伯拉罕·鲁滨逊（Abraham Robinson）以及其他众多后代数学家
签名

戈特弗里德·威廉·莱布尼茨（Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz，1646年—1716年），德国哲学家、数学家。他的著作主要用拉丁语和法语写成。莱布尼茨是历史上少见的通才，被誉为十七世纪的亚里士多德。他本人是一名律师，经常往返于各大城镇，他许多的公式都是在颠簸的马车上完成的，他也自称具有男爵的贵族身份。

莱布尼茨在数学史和哲学史上都占有重要地位。在数学上，他和牛顿先后独立发明了微积分。有人认为，莱布尼茨最大的贡献不是发明微积分，而是发明了微积分中使用的数学符号，因为牛顿使用的符号被普遍认为比莱布尼茨的差。莱布尼茨还对二进制的发展做出了贡献。

在哲学上，莱布尼茨的乐观主义最为著名，例如他认为，“我们的宇宙，在某种意义上是上帝所创造的最好的一个。”他和笛卡尔、巴鲁赫·斯宾诺莎被认为是十七世纪三位最伟大的理性主义哲学家。莱布尼茨在哲学方面的工作在预见了现代逻辑学和分析哲学诞生的同时，也显然深受经院哲学传统的影响，更多地应用第一性原理或先验定义，而不是实验证据来推导以得到结论。

莱布尼茨对物理学和技术的发展也做出了重大贡献，并且提出了一些后来涉及广泛——包括生物学、医学、地质学、概率论、心理学、语言学和信息科学——的概念。莱布尼茨在政治学、法学、伦理学、神学、哲学、历史学、语言学诸多方向都留下了著作。

莱布尼茨对如此繁多的学科方向的贡献分散在各种学术期刊、成千上万封信件、和未发表的手稿中，截止至2010年，莱布尼茨的所有作品还没有收集完全。戈特弗里德·威廉·莱布尼茨图书馆的莱布尼茨手稿藏品——Niedersächische Landesbibliothek 2007年被收入联合国教科文组织编写的世界记忆项目。

由于莱布尼茨曾在德国汉诺威生活和工作了近四十年，并且在汉诺威去世，为了纪念他和他的学术成就，2006年7月1日，也就是莱布尼茨360周年诞辰之际，汉诺威大学正式改名为汉诺威莱布尼茨大学。

生平

早年

莱布尼茨于1646年7月1日出生于神圣罗马帝国萨克森州的莱比锡，父亲是弗雷德里希·莱布尼茨，母亲是凯瑟琳娜·舒马克。莱布尼茨的索布血统的父亲在莱布尼茨6岁时去世，在那之后小莱布尼茨由他的母亲抚养长大。Her teachings influenced Leibniz's philosophical thoughts in his later life.

莱布尼茨的父亲，弗雷德里希·莱布尼茨，是莱比锡大学的一名伦理学教授，莱布尼茨继承了他父亲的个人图书馆，在七岁的时候就被允许自由进入阅览书籍。While Leibniz's schoolwork focused on a small canon of authorities, his father's library enabled him to study a wide variety of advanced 哲学和神学作品 - ones that he would not have otherwise been able to read until his college years.他父亲图书馆内的藏书相当一部分是以拉丁文写就，also lead to his proficiency of the Latin language. 莱布尼茨在12岁时就已精通拉丁文，and he composed three hundred hexameters of Latin verse in a single morning for a special event at school at the age of 13.

莱布尼茨于14岁进入了他父亲曾任教的莱比锡大学学习，并于1662年12月获得了哲学学士学位。 He defended his Disputatio Metaphysica de Principio Individui, which addressed the Principle of individuation, on June 9, 1663. 1664年2月7日莱布尼茨获得了哲学硕士学位。He published and defended a dissertation Specimen Quaestionum Philosophicarum ex Jure collectarum, arguing for both a theoretical and a pedagogical relationship between philosophy and Law, in December 1664.1665年9月，在一年的法学学习后，他获得了法学的学士学位。

1666年，20岁的莱布尼茨出版了他的第一本书，书名为《论组合术》（de arte combinatoria）。the first part of which was also his habilitation thesis in philosophy. His next goal was to earn his license and doctorate in Law, which normally required three years of study then. Older students in the law school blocked his early graduation plans, prompting Leibniz to 于1666年9月离开了莱比锡 in disgust。

然后莱布尼茨入读 阿尔特多夫大学，and almost immediately he submitted a thesis, which he had probably been working on earlier in Leipzig. 他的论文标题是 Disputatio de Casibus perplexis in Jure. 1666年11月，莱布尼茨获得了法学的博士学位和执照。他在拒绝了阿尔特多夫大学的教职邀请后，and he spent the rest of his life in the paid service of two main German families of nobleman.

1666-1674

Leibniz's first position was as a salaried alchemist in 纽伦堡, even though he knew nothing about the subject. He soon met Johann Christian von Boineburg (1622–1672), the dismissed chief minister of the Elector of 美因茨, Johann Philipp von Schönborn. Von Boineburg hired Leibniz as an assistant, and shortly thereafter reconciled with the Elector and introduced Leibniz to him. Leibniz then dedicated an essay on law to the Elector in the hope of obtaining employment. The stratagem worked; the Elector asked Leibniz to assist with the redrafting of the legal code for his Electorate. In 1669, Leibniz was appointed Assessor in the Court of Appeal. Although von Boineburg died late in 1672, Leibniz remained under the employment of his widow until she dismissed him in 1674.

Von Boineburg did much to promote Leibniz's reputation, and the latter's memoranda and letters began to attract favorable notice. Leibniz's service to the Elector soon followed a diplomatic role. He published an essay, under the pseudonym of a fictitious 波兰 nobleman, arguing (unsuccessfully) for the German candidate for the Polish crown. The main European geopolitical reality during Leibniz's adult life was the ambition of 路易十四, backed by French military and economic might. Meanwhile, the Thirty Years' War had left German-speaking Europe exhausted, fragmented, and economically backward. Leibniz proposed to protect German-speaking Europe by distracting Louis as follows. France would be invited to take 埃及 as a stepping stone towards an eventual conquest of the Dutch East Indies. In return, France would agree to leave Germany and the Netherlands undisturbed. This plan obtained the Elector's cautious support. In 1672, the French government invited Leibniz to 巴黎 for discussion, but the plan was soon overtaken by the outbreak of the Franco-Dutch War and became irrelevant. Napoleon's failed invasion of Egypt in 1798 can be seen as an unwitting implementation of Leibniz's plan.

Thus Leibniz began several years in Paris. Soon after arriving, he met 荷兰 physicist and mathematician 克里斯蒂安·惠更斯 and realised that his own knowledge of mathematics and physics was spotty. With Huygens as mentor, he began a program of self-study that soon pushed him to making major contributions to both subjects, including inventing his version of the differential and integral calculus. He met Nicolas Malebranche and Antoine Arnauld, the leading French philosophers of the day, and studied the writings of Descartes and 帕斯卡, unpublished as well as published. He befriended a German mathematician, Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus; they corresponded for the rest of their lives.

When it became clear that France would not implement its part of Leibniz's Egyptian plan, the Elector sent his nephew, escorted by Leibniz, on a related mission to the English government in 伦敦, early in 1673. There Leibniz came into acquaintance of Henry Oldenburg and John Collins. After demonstrating a calculating machine he had been designing and building since 1670 to the Royal Society, the first such machine that could execute all four basic arithmetical operations, the Society made him an external member. The mission ended abruptly when news reached it of the Elector's death, whereupon Leibniz promptly returned to Paris and not, as had been planned, to Mainz.

The sudden deaths of Leibniz's two patrons in the same winter meant that Leibniz had to find a new basis for his career. In this regard, a 1669 invitation from the Duke of Brunswick to visit Hanover proved fateful. Leibniz declined the invitation, but began corresponding with the Duke in 1671. In 1673, the Duke offered him the post of Counsellor which Leibniz very reluctantly accepted two years later, only after it became clear that no employment in Paris, whose intellectual stimulation he relished, or with the Habsburg imperial court was forthcoming.

House of Hanover, 1676–1716

Leibniz managed to delay his arrival in Hanover until the end of 1676, after making one more short journey to London, where he possibly was shown some of Newton's unpublished work on the calculus. This fact was deemed evidence supporting the accusation, made decades later, that he had stolen the calculus from Newton. On the journey from London to Hanover, Leibniz stopped in 海牙 where he met 列文虎克,the discoverer of microorganisms. He also spent several days in intense discussion with 斯宾诺莎, who had just completed his masterwork, the Ethics. Leibniz respected Spinoza's powerful intellect, but was dismayed by his conclusions that contradicted both Christian and Jewish orthodoxy.

In 1677, he was promoted, at his request, to Privy Counselor of Justice, a post he held for the rest of his life. Leibniz served three consecutive rulers of the House of Brunswick as historian, political adviser, and most consequentially, as librarian of the ducal library. He thenceforth employed his pen on all the various political, historical, and theological matters involving the House of Brunswick; the resulting documents form a valuable part of the historical record for the period.

Among the few people in north Germany to accept Leibniz were the Electress Sophia of Hanover (1630–1714), her daughter Sophia Charlotte of Hanover (1668–1705), the Queen of Prussia and his avowed disciple, and Caroline of Ansbach, the consort of her grandson, the future George II. To each of these women he was correspondent, adviser, and friend. In turn, they all approved of Leibniz more than did their spouses and the future king George I of Great Britain.

The population of Hanover was only about 10,000, and its provinciality eventually grated on Leibniz. Nevertheless, to be a major courtier to the House of Brunswick was quite an honor, especially in light of the meteoric rise in the prestige of that House during Leibniz's association with it. In 1692, the Duke of Brunswick became a hereditary Elector of the 神圣罗马帝国. The British Act of Settlement 1701 designated the Electress Sophia and her descent as the royal family of the United Kingdom, once both King William III and his sister-in-law and successor, Queen Anne, were dead. Leibniz played a role in the initiatives and negotiations leading up to that Act, but not always an effective one. For example, something he published anonymously in England, thinking to promote the Brunswick cause, was formally censured by the British Parliament.

The Brunswicks tolerated the enormous effort Leibniz devoted to intellectual pursuits unrelated to his duties as a courtier, pursuits such as perfecting the calculus, writing about other mathematics, logic, physics, and philosophy, and keeping up a vast correspondence. He began working on the calculus in 1674; the earliest evidence of its use in his surviving notebooks is 1675. By 1677 he had a coherent system in hand, but did not publish it until 1684. Leibniz's most important mathematical papers were published between 1682 and 1692, usually in a journal which he and Otto Mencke founded in 1682, the Acta Eruditorum. That journal played a key role in advancing his mathematical and scientific reputation, which in turn enhanced his eminence in diplomacy, history, theology, and philosophy.

The Elector Ernst August commissioned Leibniz to write a history of the House of Brunswick, going back to the time of Charlemagne or earlier, hoping that the resulting book would advance his dynastic ambitions. From 1687 to 1690, Leibniz traveled extensively in Germany, Austria, and Italy, seeking and finding archival materials bearing on this project. Decades went by but no history appeared; the next Elector became quite annoyed at Leibniz's apparent dilatoriness. Leibniz never finished the project, in part because of his huge output on many other fronts, but also because he insisted on writing a meticulously researched and erudite book based on archival sources, when his patrons would have been quite happy with a short popular book, one perhaps little more than a genealogy with commentary, to be completed in three years or less. They never knew that he had in fact carried out a fair part of his assigned task: when the material Leibniz had written and collected for his history of the House of Brunswick was finally published in the 19th century, it filled three volumes.

In 1711, John Keill, writing in the journal of the Royal Society and with Newton's presumed blessing, accused Leibniz of having plagiarized Newton's calculus. Thus began the calculus priority dispute which darkened the remainder of Leibniz's life. A formal investigation by the Royal Society (in which Newton was an unacknowledged participant), undertaken in response to Leibniz's demand for a retraction, upheld Keill's charge. Historians of mathematics writing since 1900 or so have tended to acquit Leibniz, pointing to important differences between Leibniz's and Newton's versions of the calculus.

In 1711, while traveling in northern Europe, the Russian 沙皇 Peter the Great stopped in Hanover and met Leibniz, who then took some interest in Russian matters for the rest of his life. In 1712, Leibniz began a two year residence in 维也纳, where he was appointed Imperial Court Councillor to the Habsburgs. On the death of Queen Anne in 1714, Elector Georg Ludwig became King George I of Great Britain, under the terms of the 1701 Act of Settlement. Even though Leibniz had done much to bring about this happy event, it was not to be his hour of glory. Despite the intercession of the Princess of Wales, Caroline of Ansbach, George I forbade Leibniz to join him in London until he completed at least one volume of the history of the Brunswick family his father had commissioned nearly 30 years earlier. Moreover, for George I to include Leibniz in his London court would have been deemed insulting to Newton, who was seen as having won the calculus priority dispute and whose standing in British official circles could not have been higher. Finally, his dear friend and defender, the dowager Electress Sophia, died in 1714.

Leibniz died in 汉诺威 in 1716: at the time, he was so out of favor that neither George I (who happened to be near Hanover at the time) nor any fellow courtier other than his personal secretary attended the funeral. Even though Leibniz was a life member of the Royal Society and the Berlin Academy of Sciences, neither organization saw fit to honor his passing. His grave went unmarked for more than 50 years. Leibniz was eulogized by Fontenelle, before the Academie des Sciences in Paris, which had admitted him as a foreign member in 1700. The eulogy was composed at the behest of the Duchess of Orleans, a niece of the Electress Sophia.

Leibniz never married. He complained on occasion about money, but the fair sum he left to his sole heir, his sister's stepson, proved that the Brunswicks had, by and large, paid him well. In his diplomatic endeavors, he at times verged on the unscrupulous, as was all too often the case with professional diplomats of his day. On several occasions, Leibniz backdated and altered personal manuscripts, actions which put him in a bad light during the calculus controversy. On the other hand, he was charming, well-mannered, and not without humor and imagination; He had many friends and admirers all over Europe.

原条目

1646年7月1日莱布尼茨出生于神圣罗马帝国的莱比锡，祖父三代人均曾在萨克森政府供职，父亲是Friedrich Leibnütz，母亲是Catherina Schmuck。长大后，莱布尼茨名字的拼法才改成“Leibniz”，但是一般人习惯写成“Leibnitz”。晚年时期，他的签名通常写成“von Leibniz”，以示贵族身份。莱布尼茨死后，他的作品才公诸于世，作者名称通常是“Freiherr [Baron] G. W. von Leibniz.”，但没有人确定他是否确实有男爵的贵族头衔。

莱布尼茨的父亲是莱比锡大学的伦理学教授，在莱布尼茨6岁时去世，留下了一个私人的图书馆。12岁时自学拉丁文，并着手学习希腊文。14岁时进入莱比锡大学念书，20岁时完成学业，专攻法律和一般大学课程。1666年他出版第一部有关于哲学方面的书籍，书名为《论组合术》（de arte combinatoria）。

1666年莱布尼茨于阿尔特多夫拿到博士学位后，拒绝了教职的邀请，并经由当时政治家博尼伯格男爵的介绍，任职服务于美茵茨选帝侯大主教约翰·菲利普·冯·舍伯恩的高等法庭。

1671年发表两篇论文《抽象运动的理论》（Theoria motus abstracti）及《新物理学假说》（Hypothesis physica nova），分别题献给巴黎的科学院和伦敦的皇家学会，在当时欧洲学术界增加了知名度。

1672年莱布尼茨被约翰·菲利普派至巴黎，以动摇路易十四对入侵荷兰及其它西欧日尔曼邻国的兴趣，并转投注精力于埃及。这项政治计划并没有成功，但莱布尼茨却进入了巴黎的知识圈，结识了马勒伯朗士和数学家惠更斯等人。这一时期的莱布尼茨专注于数学研究，并发明了微积分。

1672及1673年博尼伯格和约翰·菲利普却相继过世，迫使莱布尼茨最后于1676年离开巴黎而转任职服务于汉诺威的约翰·弗雷德里希公爵。于上任时，于海牙拜访斯宾诺莎，与其讨论了数天哲学。之后莱布尼茨来到汉诺威管理图书馆，并担任公爵的法律顾问。

1680至1685年间，担任哈茨山银矿矿采工程师。在这期间，莱布尼茨致力于风车设计，以抽取矿坑中的地下水。然而受限于技术问题和矿工传统观念的阻力，计划没有成功。

1685年起，再受继任的公爵Ernst August所托，转而开始做其Braunschweig-Lüneburg贵族族谱研究。这项计划一直到莱布尼茨去世前都没有完成。

1686年完成《形而上学论》(Discours de métaphysique)。

1689年为完成Braunschweig-Lüneburg族谱研究，游历于意大利。其时结识耶稣会派遣于中国的传教士，而开始对中国事物有更强烈的兴趣。

1695年于期刊发表《新系统》，进而使莱布尼茨哲学中，关于实体间与心物间之“预定和谐”理论，被广泛认识。

1700年莱布尼茨说服勃兰登堡选帝侯腓特烈三世于柏林成立科学院，并担任首任院长。

1704年完成《人类理智新论》。本文针对洛克的《人类理智论》，用对话的体裁，逐章节提出批评。然因洛克的突然过世，莱布尼茨不愿被落入欺负死者的口实，所以本书在莱布尼茨生前一直都没有出版。

1710年，出于对1705年过世的普鲁士王后索菲·夏洛特的感念，出版《神义论》(Essais de Théodicée)。

1714年于维也纳著写《单子论》(Monadologie;标题为后人所加)及《建立于理性上之自然与恩惠的原理》。同年，汉诺威公爵Georg Ludwig继任为英国国王乔治一世，却拒绝将莱布尼茨带至伦敦，而将他疏远于汉诺威。

1716年11月14日莱布尼茨于汉诺威孤独地过世，除了他自己的秘书外，即使Georg Ludwig本人正巧在汉诺威，宫廷无其他人参加他的丧礼。直到去世前几个月，才写完一份关于中国人宗教思想的手稿：《论中国人的自然神学》。

哲学家

单子论

除了是一位出众的天才数学家之外，莱布尼茨亦是欧陆理性主义哲学的高峰。承断了西方哲学传统的思想，他认为世界，因其确定（换句话说，有关世界的知识是客观普遍和必然的）之故，必然是由自足的实体所构成。所谓的自足，是不依他物存在和不依他物而被认知。莱布尼茨的前辈斯宾诺莎以为实体只有一个，就是神／自然。莱布尼茨对此不敢苟同，原因之一是斯氏的泛神观和圣经的神学有明显冲突，其次，是因为斯氏的理论没有能够解决由笛卡儿以降的二元论，令世界出现了断层（他虽然强调世界为一，但没有说明这一个看来是二元对立的世界的一统是如何可能）。

莱布尼茨以为实体是多的，是无限多的。跟随亚里士多德的实体观，他以为实体是一命题的主语。在一个命题S是P中，S就是实体。因为实体是自足的，则它要包含所有可能的谓语，即是“...是P”。由此，我们可以推出，实体有四个特征：不可分割性、封闭性、统有性和道德性。

不可分割性是指，任何有广延的东西，即有长度的东西，都可以被分割。被分割了的东西分别包含了自己的全部可能性，并且自足，则有广延的东西的内容，即可能性要依附于他的部分的可能性。如此类推，则只要有广延性，就不自足，而要依他物而被知（对莱布尼茨来说，真正的知识就是要穷一物的可能性），就不是实体。故实体不可分割，是一没有广延的东西，在莱布尼茨的晚年著作中（Monadology），他称之为单子（Monad），单子的性质就是思（thought）。这广延的世界就是由无限多的单子构成。

封闭性是说每一单子必然是自足的，不依他而存在，而又包含了自己的全部可能性。则一单子不可能和另一单子有交互作用（interaction）。若一单子作用于另一单子，则后一单子有一可能性没有包括在该单子之内，即该单子没能自足的包含自己的全部内容，而要依附于他物。因为实体的定义，这是不可能的。故莱布尼茨说：“单子之间没有窗户。”

统有性是指每一单子都必然以某种角度（perspective）包括了全世界。因为世界是紧密的由因果所构成，故A作用于B，其实不单单是作用于B，而是全世界。如果说一单子的内容包括自身的全部可能，则每一单子均以该单子自身为中心指向全世界。而这个世界是一的，不等于说所有单子都是一样的，因为同一世界可以不同的角度来认知，而不失为一一统的世界。

最后，单子的道德性则较复杂。这个特性的提出是基于两个理由，一、是世界的一统性（unity），二、是世界的确定性。对于前者，所有的单子都包含全世界，但各以自己的角度，世界的一统性是不是假的呢？如果我们要说一统，可以如何说起呢？对于后者，世界是由单子构成，单子只是其可能性的集合，世界亦只是一可能。那我们是不是不可能有一种不仅仅是可能，而是必然的知识呢？我们可以在什么意义下说有关世界的知识是真的、确定的呢？莱布尼茨将之归功于一神，世界的创造者。从一个方面说，神在创造之前，没有已成的材料，故没有既成的有限处境，则创造是一纯意志的创造，神是单凭其至善而创造这一个世界的。故此，如莱布尼茨的名言，这一个确切成就了的世界是“众多可能的世界之中最好的一个。”这乎合了莱布尼茨的信仰要求。另一方面，要确定的了解一事物，则要了解其原因。要理解这一个原因，又要追索该原因的原因。如此类推，则世界的确定性知识不可能是一世界之内的动因（efficient cause），而是一超越的形上因（metaphysical cause）。莱布尼茨称这个理论上必要设置的形上因为神。故，这一个世界之所以是如此，就是因为这是最好的，是至善的可能世界。人，要完全理解这神的至善意志，是不可能的，但可朝这一个方向迈进，因为人的心灵作一特殊的单子，是有记忆的，可以基于过去，畴划自己的未来，这是人类分享的神性，即道德的可能性。人可以透过开放可能性，了解这个神创造的世界，而了解如何成为一个道德的人。

这一种世界的道德观，可以被视为康德的先驱，分别在于莱布尼茨独断的提出了神为道德的完满，把可能性说成了是在神的目光之下的实在，而没有真正的将世界的可能性看作为可能性。而且莱布尼茨对天赋观念（innate idea）的批评，正是黑格尔对康德的批评，在这个意义上说，康德一方面是被休谟（Hume）从莱布尼茨的独断梦中唤醒，可是同时亦到由洛克（Locke）起的哲学病变--对理性界限的审查--所污染。在这一方面，莱布尼茨却比康德走前了一步。

符号思维

莱布尼茨有个显著的信仰，大量的人类推理可以被归约为某类运算，而这种运算可以解决看法上的差异:

“ 精炼我们的推理的唯一方式是使它们同数学一样切实，这样我们能一眼就找出我们的错误，并且在人们有争议的时候，我们可以简单的说，让我们计算“calculemus”，而无须进一步的忙乱，就能看出谁是正确的。 ” ——《发现的艺术》1685, W 51

莱布尼茨的演算推论器，很能让人想起符号逻辑，可以被看作使这种计算成为可行的一种方式。莱布尼茨写的备忘录（帕金森于1966年翻译了它们）可以被看作是对符号逻辑的探索--所以他的演算--上路了。但是Gerhard和Couturat没有出版这些著作，直到现代形式逻辑在1880年代于弗雷格的《概念文字》和查尔斯·皮尔士及其学生的著作中形成，所以就更在乔治·布尔和德·摩根在1847年开创这种逻辑之后了。

形式逻辑

莱布尼茨是在亚里士多德和1847年乔治·布尔和德·摩根分别出版开创现代形式逻辑的著作之间最重要的逻辑学家。莱布尼茨阐明了我们现在叫做合取、析取、否定、同一、集合包含和空集的首要性质。莱布尼茨的逻辑原理和他的整个哲学可被归约为两点:

1. 所有的我们的观念（概念）都是由非常小数目的简单观念复合而成，它们形成了人类思维的字母。
2. 复杂的观念来自这些简单的观念，通过模拟算术运算的统一的和对称的组合。

数学家

目前微积分领域使用的符号仍是莱布尼茨所提出的。在高等数学和数学分析领域，莱布尼茨判别法是用来判别交错级数的收敛性的。

微积分

莱布尼茨与牛顿谁先发明微积分的争论是数学界至今最大的公案。莱布尼茨于1684年发表第一篇微分论文，定义了微分概念，采用了微分符号dx，dy。1686年他又发表了积分论文，讨论了微分与积分，使用了积分符号∫。依据莱布尼茨的笔记本，1675年11月11日他便已完成一套完整的微分学。

然而1695年英国学者宣称：微积分的发明权属于牛顿；1699年又说：牛顿是微积分的“第一发明人”。1712年英国皇家学会成立了一个委员会调查此案，1713年初发布公告：“确认牛顿是微积分的第一发明人。”莱布尼茨直至去世后的几年都受到了冷遇。由于对牛顿的盲目崇拜，英国学者长期固守于牛顿的流数术，只用牛顿的流数符号，不屑采用莱布尼茨更优越的符号，以致英国的数学脱离了数学发展的时代潮流。

不过莱布尼茨对牛顿的评价非常的高，在1701年柏林宫廷的一次宴会上，普鲁士国王腓特烈询问莱布尼茨对牛顿的看法，莱布尼茨说道：

“ 在从世界开始到牛顿生活的时代的全部数学中，牛顿的工作超过了一半 ”

牛顿在1687年出版的《自然哲学的数学原理》的第一版和第二版也写道：“十年前在我和最杰出的几何学家莱布尼茨的通信中，我表明我已经知道确定极大值和极小值的方法、作切线的方法以及类似的方法，但我在交换的信件中隐瞒了这方法，……这位最卓越的科学家在回信中写道，他也发现了一种同样的方法。他并诉述了他的方法，它与我的方法几乎没有什么不同，除了他的措词和符号而外”（但在第三版及以后再版时，这段话被删掉了）。

因此，后来人们公认牛顿和莱布尼茨是各自独立地创建微积分的。

牛顿从物理学出发，运用集合方法研究微积分，其应用上更多地结合了运动学，造诣高于莱布尼茨。莱布尼茨则从几何问题出发，运用分析学方法引进微积分概念、得出运算法则，其数学的严密性与系统性是牛顿所不及的。

莱布尼茨认识到好的数学符号能节省思维劳动，运用符号的技巧是数学成功的关键之一。因此，他所创设的微积分符号远远优于牛顿的符号，这对微积分的发展有极大影响。1714至1716年间，莱布尼茨在去逝前，起草了《微积分的历史和起源》一文（本文直到1846年才被发表），总结了自己创立微积分学的思路，说明了自己成就的独立性。

拓扑学

拓扑学最早称之“位相分析学”（analysis situs），是莱布尼茨1679年提出的，这是一门研究地形、地貌相类似的学科，当时主要研究的是出于数学分析的需要而产生的一些几何问题。关于莱布尼茨对拓扑学的贡献，尚存争论。Mates引用Jacob Freudenthal1954年一篇论文里的话说：

尽管莱布尼茨认为一列点在空间中的位置是由其间距离唯一决定的——当且仅当距离发生变化时点的位置发生相应的改变——他的仰慕者欧拉，在他著名的一篇论文（1736年发表，解决了柯尼斯堡七桥问题及其推广）中，却是在“拓扑变形时点的位置不发生变化”的意义下使用“几何位置”这个名词的。他误信了莱布尼茨是这个概念的创始者。……人们常常意识不到莱布尼茨是在完全不同的意义下使用这个名词的，因此被尊为数学的这个分支领域的奠基人并不恰当。

但平野秀秋持有不同看法，他引用曼德勃罗的话说:

在莱布尼茨海量的科学成果中探索是发人深省的体验。除了微积分以及其他已经完成的研究之外，大量涉及内容广泛且极富前瞻性的研究对科学发展的推动力势不可挡。在‘填充理论’上即有例子，……在发现莱布尼茨还曾经关注过几何度量的重要性之后，我对他的狂热更甚了。在“欧几里德普罗塔”中……，其使得欧几里德公理更加严格，他陈述道，……‘对直线，我有数种不同的定义。直线是曲线的一种，而曲线的任何部分都是和整体相似的，因此直线也具有这种特性；这不仅适用于曲线，而且适用于集合。’这个论断今天已经可以被证明。

因而分形几何（由伯努瓦·曼德勃罗发扬光大）理论在莱布尼茨的自相似性思想和连续性原理中寻求支持：大自然没有跳跃（拉丁语“natura non facit saltus”，英语"nature does not make jumps"）。当莱布尼茨在他的形而上学著作中写道，“直线是曲线的一种，其任何部分都是和整体类似的”，他实际上提前两个世纪预言了拓扑学的诞生。至于“填充理论”，莱布尼茨对他的朋友Des Bosses说，“你想象一个圆，然后用三个全等的最大半径的圆填满它，后来的三个小圆又可以以同样的过程被更小的圆填充”。这个过程可以无限地继续下去，并由此生发出了自相似性的思想。莱布尼茨对于欧氏公理的改进亦包含同样的概念。

科学家以及工程师

今天人们仍然在讨论莱布尼茨的研究成果，不仅是为了其伟大的预见性和可能未被注意到的发现，更是为了探知这种能够先知的方法。他在物理学上的工作大部分被囊括在格哈特的数学著作中。

物理

参见：物力论(形而上学)

Leibniz contributed a fair amount to the statics and dynamics emerging about him, often disagreeing with Descartes and Newton. He devised a new theory of motion (dynamics) based on kinetic energy and potential energy, which posited space as relative, whereas Newton felt strongly space was absolute. An important example of Leibniz's mature physical thinking is his Specimen Dynamicum of 1695.

Until the discovery of subatomic particles and the quantum mechanics governing them, many of Leibniz's speculative ideas about aspects of nature not reducible to statics and dynamics made little sense. For instance, he anticipated Albert Einstein by arguing, against Newton, that space, time and motion are relative, not absolute. Leibniz's rule is an important, if often overlooked, step in many proofs in diverse fields of physics. The principle of sufficient reason has been invoked in recent cosmology, and his identity of indiscernibles in quantum mechanics, a field some even credit him with having anticipated in some sense. Those who advocate digital philosophy, a recent direction in cosmology, claim Leibniz as a precursor.

The vis viva

Leibniz's vis viva (Latin for living force) is mv², twice the modern kinetic energy. He realized that the total energy would be conserved in certain mechanical systems, so he considered it an innate motive characteristic of matter. Here too his thinking gave rise to another regrettable nationalistic dispute. His vis viva was seen as rivaling the conservation of momentum championed by Newton in England and by Descartes in France; hence academics in those countries tended to neglect Leibniz's idea. Engineers eventually found vis viva useful, so that the two approaches eventually were seen as complementary.

莱布尼茨与中国文化

莱布尼茨是较早接触中华文化的欧洲人。法国汉学大师若阿基姆·布韦（Joachim Bouvet，汉名白晋，1662－1732年）向莱布尼茨介绍了《周易》和八卦的系统，他们两人一直是好朋友。在莱布尼茨眼中，“阴”与“阳”基本上就是他的二进制的中国版。他曾断言言：“二进制乃是具有世界普遍性的、最完美的逻辑语言”。目前在德国图林根，著名的郭塔王宫图书馆（Schlossbibliothek zu Gotha）内仍保存一份莱氏的手稿，标题写着“1与0，一切数字的神奇渊源。”