Leibniz: An Intellectual Biography
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 10/6/2008
EAN 9780521806190, ISBN10: 0521806194
Hardcover, 652 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 4 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
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). Maria Rosa Antognazza's pioneering biography provides 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. 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.
Part I. Youthful Vocations (1646–76)
1. The birth of a vision
background, childhood, and education (July 1646–March 1667)
2. The vision broadens
Nuremberg, Frankfurt, and Mainz (March 1667–March 1672)
3. Old wine in new bottles
Paris, London, and Holland (March 1672–December 1676)
Part II. Dreams and Reality (1676–1716)
4. A universal genius as librarian, historian, and mining engineer
Hanover and Lower Saxony (December 1676–October 1687)
5. In the footsteps of the Guelfs
southern Germany, Austria, and Italy (November 1687–June 1690)
6. Back under the Guelf Dukes
Hanover and Wolfenbüttel (June 1690–February 1698)
7. Between brother and sister
Hanover and Berlin (February 1698–February 1705)
8. Light and shadows
Hanover, Berlin, Wolfenbüttel, Vienna (February 1705–September 1714)
9. Epilogue
last years in Hanover (September 1714–November 1716).