Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz

Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646-1716), a German mathematician and philosopher, was a rationalist in the tradition of Descartes and Spinoza and along with John Locke, was a strong influence on the Enlightenment of the 18th Century, He discovered the calculus at about the same time as did Isaac Newton and his notation is still used. He believed the universe to be made of "monads," individual substances each of which mirrored the whole universe from its point of view. He rejected both Descartes' dualism and Spinoza's monism in favor of a pluralism of monads. Contemporary philosophers are still struggling with his odd but profound philosophy.