||boek: Leibniz|vertaling: Hessel Daalder|Lemniscaat-Kopstukken Filosofie

||door: George MacDonald Ross

||taal: nl
||jaar: 2003
||druk: 2e druk
||pag.: 140p
||opm.: softcover|zo goed als nieuw

||isbn: 90-5637-281-5
||code: 1:000786

--- Over het boek (foto 1): Leibniz ---

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) was wat de Duitsers zo treffend een Universalgenie noemen. In dit boek geeft G. MacDonald Ross een uitvoerige en kleurrijke beschrijving van het leven van Leibniz. Hij plaatst zijn filosofische ideeën in een ruim perspectief, doordat hij ze in verband brengt met zijn werkzaamheden als alchemist, bibliothecaris, diplomaat, mijningenieur en historicus.

Leibniz was een buitengewoon veelzijdig man. Hij stond op een kruispunt van wegen tussen de holistische en vitalistische wereldbeschouwing van de Renaissance, en het atomistische en mechanistische materialisme dat in de achttiende en negentiende eeuw zou overheersen. Veel van zijn ideeën waren te radicaal voor zijn tijd. Zij zouden pas veel later ingang vinden - sommige pas in de twintigste eeuw.

[bron: https--www.dekaft.be/boeken/leibniz]

Though best known as a philosopher, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a polymath with many facets to his genius. Besides providing the most detailed account of his life available in English, George MacDonald Ross puts Leibniz's philosophical ideas into perspective by examining them in the light of his work as an alchemist, librarian, diplomat, mining engineer, and historian.

[source: https--www.amazon.com]

Real clarity on a difficult thinker [2013-07-24]

This short book is as good an introduction to the life and thought of Leibniz as you will find. It is not a full biography. It begins with a 25 page overview of Leibniz's life and covers all the main points from his youthful reading of his father's extensive library to his ambitions to unify all knowledge and bring peace to the warring religions. Leibniz spent most of the last half of his life in the service of the German princes, especially Georg Ludwig, the future George I of England. He was often frustrated in this position but, as Ross points out, Leibniz's rather large ego and his need for money led him to make all sorts of practical proposals to the princes that were impossible to fulfill; many of them ended up being undoable or half done. He died with many unfinished projects, both in his practical projects and in his writings.

The heart of this book is chapters two through four. Chapter two is on Mathematics, three on Science and four on Logic. I doubt if there is another source available that is as good at summarizing Leibniz's contributions to these areas. Ross clarifies a point that throws light on the intense and vicious rivalry that occurred at that time among mathematicians and scientists. That is the cult of the "virtuoso," the brilliant amateur (compared to the "professionals" in the universities). The virtuosi (and they were called that at the time) became intellectual heroes but one major result of maintaining that image besides the intense competition was that new ideas had to be pumped out and not necessarily spelled out in elaborate detail or taken to completion. This not only helps to explain the incompleteness of some of Leibniz's work but sheds light on people like Robert Hooke and to some extent Newton who refused to publish for years because he did not want to become involved in the public competition. When Newton finally did become involved he was one of the most vitriolic defenders of his work and Ross covers his debate with Leibniz about who invented calculus. Ross also shows why the notation of Leibniz was superior and has a highly readable section about what the calculus allowed mathematicians to do that they could not do before.

But Leibniz did so much more than the calculus. He invented (or, perhaps better, developed for the first time) binary arithmetic, a breakthrough that was to have far-reaching implications. Against Newton he argued for the relativity of space, i.e., that the only truth about spatial relations was how they appeared to different observers. Using his binary arithmetic, Leibniz developed a precursor of Boolean logic and developed what is closely analogous to the first truth table. These and other achievements are explained in clear and well-written prose by Ross.

Chapter five is on Metaphysics and chapter six is on "God and Man" followed by a brief concluding chapter on the influence of Leibniz. As a philosophy teacher I have many times tried to make sense out of Leibniz's metaphysics. What Ross does is to tie its development into Leibniz's life-long goal of unifying conflicting viewpoints. The metaphysics chapter is divided into sections like Scholastics versus Moderns, Cartesians versus Atomists, etc. Ross then shows how Leibniz takes his discoveries in mathematics, logic and science and builds a metaphysics with them to mediate these conflicting disputes. The result is still, as Ross admits, massively speculative but brilliantly so. Leibniz's need to tie God into the picture and the linguistic and empirical limitations Leibniz dealt with clearly show in the development of his metaphysics. Given this context (and that is critical), Leibniz's "monads" and his "best of all possible worlds" make more sense. But the speculative leaps he has to make in order to unify the polarities of his time and tie all this into his earlier work still leave the modern reader scratching his or her head. Ross is sympathetic both to Leibniz and to the modern reader of Leibniz. He does a fine job walking the tight rope of being fair to Leibniz and criticizing him. Given the complexity and difficulty of Leibniz's metaphysics, chapters five and six are as clear a summary as I have read.

Leibniz was viciously satirized by Voltaire as Dr. Pangloss in Candide. This is the Leibniz of monads and the best possible world. But Leibniz did so much more than his metaphysics. His contributions to mathematics and science have come through the centuries. Ross does a great job of summarizing what Leibniz has given all of us. I recommend this little book.

Daniel Putman [source: https--www.amazon.com]

A fine, brief, intellectual biography of one of our greatest geniuses [2015-12-28]

A fine, brief, intellectual biography of one of our greatest geniuses, and probably the most under-appreciated genius. I believe that he deserves greater credit for calculus than does Newton; the calculus that we use today is more Leibniz than Newton and Leibniz' philosophic understanding of the calculus was better. This book would be a good place to start in learning about Leibniz.

Thomas M. Mcgovern [source: https--www.amazon.com]

It's gratifying whether you "wrestle it to the mat" student fashion --- or dip into it as the mood takes you. [2014-02-06]

Abstruse "explanations" of philosophers' writings abound. This is refreshingly different. It's true to Leibniz, but it's illuminatingly broad guage, contextualizing him in the times he lived in, his restless travels, his meddling in foreign policy as a courtier, his efforts to drain royal silver mines and the like. Philosophical issues get judiciously formulation in separate chapters and are examined rigorously in the requisite terms, but this is no hermetically sealed Mason jar labeled "Let's isolate this man as a detached thinking machine".

I love this book's simplicities and lucid presentations, and the stitching in of Plato and others. "His great philosophical hero was Plato ... Both believed truth ultimately rested in the logical relationships between hierarchically structured objective concepts ..." (p.74). We don't have to reread that sentence countless times, tearing our hair out, trying to nail down the meaning on the spot and getting mired down. MacDonald Ross shares with Leibniz the ability to fit a sentence into seven league boots and have it anticipate and elucidate themes that lie ahead. We're alerted to that theme now and future chapters will gain resonance from this earlier sentence. This is rare organizational ability.

His few sentences on Leibniz's denial of absolute space in the chapter entitled "Science" suffice to give us Leibniz's coherent position. Comprehension is built in. So much so, that MacDonald Ross smoothly goes on to relate Leibniz's view of relative space with Einstein's! - and again in just a few sentences. His flair for organization and the linking of components takes the text out of the "grind" category.

This is a truly concise package. Deduct the opening 25 page intellectual polymath biography + the final 3 pages on subsequent influence, and you're looking at 83 pages of well organized and pertinent discussion focused on Leibniz. I dip into everything according to my moods, wait for things to jell in unhurried fashion, return to the pleasant byways of the great man's original writings (published separately and not included here) and let the entire brew steep. As this book costs next to nothing (+ reasonable shipping charges from Amazon), what a treat this is.

Leibniz should be wonder provoking. And this book facilitates that - if one's pores are open and one takes advantage of the relaxed mode of presenting. So much so, that when I skip the chapter on Leibniz's logic (logic has always been a bugaboo for me), I still feel deeply gifted with an inexhaustible cause for wonder.

Pizzaro [source: https--www.amazon.com]

[2019-03-02]

This is a wonderful biography on Leibniz. It is brief, thorough, and unrivaled in clarity. Ross is sensitive to the historical contexts of Leibniz's work, both in terms of his relation to intellectual forebears and of contemporary appropriations of his thought.

In the opening chapter, Ross offers a sketch Leibniz's life, demonstrating the extent to which Leibniz's contributions in numerous disciplines set him apart as something of a virtuoso. Ross also includes some details about Leibniz's personal character and his interactions with other major intellectual figures and institutions (Newton, The Royal Society of London, Duke Johann Friedrich, etc.).

Though his contributions as a mathematician, theoretical scientist, linguist, translator, statesman, theologian, and engineer (among other things) are indicative of Leibniz's extraordinary genius, he was a controversial figure among his peers. Suspected of being both a crypto-Catholic because of his association with "Papists and Jesuits" and an atheist since he did not go to church, it is evident that Leibniz rarely felt at home among his own countrymen. Also, some suspected Leibniz's developments in infinitesimal calculus were mere plagiarisms of Newton; however, Ross demonstrates the independence of Leibniz's work and how Leibniz only confirmed the similarity of their projects upon reading Newton's "Principles of Mathematical Philosophy" in 1689.

He also had deep admiration and stinging criticism for both Scholasticism and Moderns, seeking to steer a middle position that recognized merits of both and avoided perceived faults.

Leibniz was prone to begin a number of projects that ended in failure or that failed to ever see completion. He was concerned to have multiple testimonies to his own genius. "Leibniz's life was dominated by an unachievable ambition to excel in every sphere of intellectual and political activity. The wonder is not that he failed so often, but that he achieved as much as he did" (Ross, 26).

This is as fine an intellectual biography as one will ever find for 117 pages. I highly recommend it. (less)

Chet Duke [source: https--www.goodreads.com]

[2017-10-07]

Overall a good resume of the Works and life of Leibniz. In some parts there are gaps and even the odd inaccuracy borne out of not fully understanding the works of the great man.

In the main, though, one of the most concise and thorough books on Leibniz. And it does identify him as the great Philosopher, Mathematician, and the last great polymath. He was undoubtedly a Pythagorean and Platonist in his views. As suggested though ( I do not see any difference in view to Pythagoras). Make your own mind up, read the book! (less)

Nox Prognatus [source: https--www.goodreads.com]

[2012-03-16]

Fairly good introduction to the startling ideas of the great German Polymath. From practical and innovative mechanical inventions to the flights to the highest skies of Mathematics and Metaphysics, Leibniz is the man that brought Calculus about (with Newton ?!) and monadology, the fascinating theory that (may) implicates the uniformity of the Universe and sharing consciousness of animated and inanimated things; revolutionary.

Solor [source: https--www.goodreads.com]

Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz was born in Leipzig, on Sunday 1 July 1646. His father, Friedrich Leibnütz (1597-1652), was Professor of Moral Philosophy at Leipzig University. His mother, Catherina Schmuck (1621-64), was Friedrich's third wife. Leibniz had a half-brother Johann Friedrich (d. 1696), and a sister Anna Catherina (1648-72), whose son Friedrich Simon Löffler was eventually his sole heir. During his twenties, Leibniz changed the spelling of his name from '-ütz' to '-iz': he himself never used the '-itz' form, which became the normal spelling during his own lifetime, and which has only recently gone out of fashion.Little is known about Leibniz's early education, beyond what he tells us in incidental reminiscences, which probably exaggerate the extent to which he was self-taught. He learned to read from his father, well before going to school at the age of seven. He claims that he taught himself Latin from an illustrated Livy, and that by the age of eight he was avidly reading his late father's books. It is hard to imagine what he can have made of them at first, since he was not fluent in Latin until the age of twelve, and was only then beginning Greek. But they certainly formed the basis of his later massive erudition in the classics, the Church Fathers, and scholastic philosophy. On top of this, his school syllabus was itself very demanding, including German literature and history, Latin, Greek, theology and logic. This last was of particular interest to him, and at the age of thirteen he was already trying to improve on theAristotelian theory of the categories, despite discouragement from his teachers.PAGE 4Leibniz moved on to Leipzig University after Easter 1661, when he was still only fourteen (young, but not exceptionally so in those days). He followed the standard two-year arts course, which included philosophy, rhetoric, mathematics,Latin, Greek and Hebrew. After graduating, he could proceed only by studying for a doctorate in one of the 'higher' faculties of Theology, Law, or Medicine. He opted for Law, but before starting his course, he spent the short summer term at the nearby university of Jena. Here he came into contact with more unorthodox ideas, in particular Erhard Weigel'sNeopythagoreanism, according to which Number is the fundamental reality of the universe.Following his return to Leipzig, Leibniz spent the next three years working at a series of 'disputations' which hehad to publish and defend in open debate at each stage (or 'degree')of his student career. In addition to bachelor's and master's disputations in law, in his final year he wrote a Dissertation on the Art of Combinations, by which he 'habilitated', that is, became qualified to lecture in philosophy. However, he did not exercise his right to teach philosophy, since such lectureships were purely honorary, and he was already heavily in debt to his relatives. Rather, he had his eyes on one of twelve established law tutorships, which went to doctors of law whenever vacancies occurred, in order of date of graduation. Unfortunately, there were too many doctoral candidates that year, and the younger ones, including Leibniz, were told to wait until a later degree day. He took this very badly, and suspected a conspiracy directed against him personally by the Dean's wife, for motives which he never explained. So he moved on to the little university of Altdorf, just outsideNuremberg, which was then a major centre of science and technology. Almost as soon as he had registered (4 October 1666), he submitted his already prepared doctoral thesis, and was formally awarded the degree the following February. He so impressed the Altdorf academics, that he was offered a professorship, but by that time he had changed his mind about an academic career, and decided insteadto become more involved in the outside world.

...

[source: https--www.academia.edu/925996/Leibniz]

--- Over (foto 2): George MacDonald Ross ---

George MacDonald Ross
Senior Lecturer at Department of Philosophy, University of Leeds
University of Cambridge University of Cambridge

Experience

• Honorary President

SAPERE
2010 - Present

• University of Leeds

- Mr
Oct 1972 - Present
- Senior Lecturer
Oct 1972 - Present
Also Director of the Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies of the Higher Education Academy.

• Director

Subject Centre for Higher Education Academy
2000 - 2009

• Assistant Lecturer

Department of Philosophy, University of Birmingham
Oct 1969 - Sep 1972

Education

• University of Cambridge

BA Moral Sciences
1962 - 1965
MA, 1969

Recommendations received

• Dr. Constantinos Athanasopoulos, FHEA

"I was very impressed by George's management skills and the informal but meaningful way with which he run the Subject Centre. It was a joy to work close to him and an honour to have him as a Manager. He inspired me in my work, both in supporting other academic teachers in philosophy, theology and religious studies and in my own personal academic teaching work, teaching philosophy in a student-centred and technology friendly way. I particularly liked the way he perfected an elearning methodology in teaching Hobbes and Kant (I have learned a lot from this...)."

[source: https--uk.linkedin.com]

My general theme is the extent to which philosophers and others must be taken literally when they have written about angels, or anything else which is no longer generally believed in. However, since the title may perhaps have aroused expectations of angels dancing on points of needles, I shall take as my point of departure the question of whether or not the scholastics ever discussed how many angels could dance on the point of a needle. The answer would in fact seem to be in the negative, the closest parallel being found in the anonymous fourteenth-century mystical treatise Swester Katrei, which refers to a thousand souls in heaven sitting on the point of a needle.

[source: https--philpapers.org/rec/GEOA]

George MacDonald Ross is former Director of the Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies, and Visiting Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Leeds, UK. In 2006 he was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship for his contribution to the improvement of learning and teaching in higher education in the UK.

[source: https--www.bloomsbury.com/in/author/george-macdonald-ross]

National Teaching Fellow 2006 George MacDonald Ross is Director of the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies (PRS) and a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Leeds. In 1984, he founded the National Committee for Philosophy, which was the first organisation to defend and promote philosophy as a discipline. George's credentials as an authority were recognised when he successfully bid for the PRS Subject Centre, based at the University of Leeds, in 2000. Since then he has become, as he says, "an exemplar of the research/teaching nexus" and has initiated a new area of research into the teaching of philosophy in the UK. He aims to provide a challenging, yet supportive, environment to enable his students to grapple with the complexities of philosophy by living the subject. For example, the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) Philosophy Benchmark Statement states that students should have first-hand experience of primary texts, but this is rarely achieved in practice. George, in his module on Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, is possibly the only teacher in the English-speaking world to ensure that all students work from the (translated) text itself: he has even produced his own student-friendly translations. He says "to discourage students from treating my seminars as a lecture, I forbid them to take notes, except for an official minute-taker, who posts them in an electronic discussion room. In order to ensure that students think for themselves, I tell them to treat anything they get from me or fellow students as a secondary source like any other, requiring proper references. I encourage students to criticise my materials if they can." One of his innovations was proctorials for first year students. Proctors are final-year students who do not teach but manage discussion, and are given academic credit for their performance in class and for an essay in which they analyse the system. The system has now been adopted elsewhere at Leeds and at other institutions, and was singled out for particular praise in a QAA subject overview report. George has received an Award of Merit for outstanding leadership and achievement in the teaching of philosophy from the American Association of Philosophy Teachers, the first such award to a non-US academic.

[source: https--www.advance-he.ac.uk/ntfs/mr-george-macdonald-ross]