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W. Tent MB
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Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: The Polymath Who Brought Us Calculus 1st Edition

by M. B. W. Tent (Editor)
3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 3 ratings
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Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: The Polymath Who Brought Us Calculus focuses on the life and accomplishments of one of the seventeenth century’s most influential mathematicians and philosophers. The book, which draws on Leibniz’s written works and translations, and reconstructs dialogues Leibniz may have had based on the historical record of his life experiences, portrays Leibniz as both a phenomenal genius and a real person.

Suitable for middle school age readers, the book traces Leibniz’s life from his early years as a young boy and student to his later work as a court historian. It discusses the intellectual and social climate in which he fought for his ideas, including his rather contentious relationship with Newton (both claimed to have invented calculus). The text describes how Leibniz developed the first mechanical calculator that could handle addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. It also examines his passionate advocacy of rational arguments in all controversial matters, including the law, expressed in his famous exclamation calculemus: let us calculate to see who is right.

Leibniz made groundbreaking contributions to mathematics and philosophy that have shaped our modern views of these fields.

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  1. ISBN-10
    1439892229
  2. ISBN-13
    978-1439892220
  3. Edition
    1st
  4. Publisher
    A K Peters/CRC Press
  5. Publication date
    October 17, 2011
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    5.4 x 0.9 x 8 inches
  8. Print length
    260 pages
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

the reader gets a good impression of Leibniz's life and ideas.
--Charlotte Wahl, Zentralblatt MATH 1234

this book permits us to place in our mind many of Leibniz's important contributions at the right place and time where they occurred ... absolutely indispensable to initiate teenagers ... written in a very vivid style, the book under review is very commendable.
--Marcel Guillaume, Mathematical Reviews, 2012h

... fun to read, and the book is instructive. Tent knows what she's talking about. ... A fun book to take on holiday.
--Rudi Penne and Paul Levrie, WeetLogs.SciLogs.be, April 2012

The life of Gottfried Leibniz, philosopher, theologian, mathematician, devisor of mechanical computers--in short, a universal genius--is presented in this work with sympathy and understanding. An informative read for teenagers and beyond.
--Philip J. Davis, coauthor of The Mathematical Experience

About the Author

M. B. W. Tent

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ A K Peters/CRC Press; 1st edition (October 17, 2011)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 260 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1439892229
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1439892220
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 8 - 12 years
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 16 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.4 x 0.9 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 3 ratings

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W. Tent MB

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Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars
3.9 out of 5
3 global ratings

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Kindle Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and informative
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 16, 2021
Verified Purchase
This book is well written and I have learned much on the story of Leibniz. The section on the calculus may have been expanded. Altogether a nice read.
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Ioan JIPA
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 4, 2015
Verified Purchase
Excellent !
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W. Scott
4.0 out of 5 stars Still a thinking machine
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 11, 2013
Verified Purchase
This is a reconstruction based on a study of the details of Leibniz's life: technically, a novel in that case, though far better, by an American high school maths teacher, Margaret Tent. Because of this, there is a decent amount about maths (unlike the far larger academic tome by Maria Antognazza, a philosophy professor, also American-educated). Consequently, this book is very clear as Antognazza's is not.
This short hard back is expensive and should not be. Yet it is easy to read and the advantage of this form means Tent can imagine scenes. How powerful is the imagination? Not very but, perhaps, adequate (the scene is never set; clothing not described, the appearance of things, the atmosphere, tension, conflict etc; the conditions of the outer world, even the local world). The section on Leibniz's early studies in Latin is very good; suggest strongly that Antognazza is mistaken in supposing that L did not master the language till 12 (p36). That really is unbelievable in a mind of this quality. Tent has him say he taught himself Latin by age ten (p60). Even that is too late,
There are some puzzling apparent errors: Newton born 1643 (pix), when so many other books give his date as Christmas day 1642; 'Hanover' in Antognazza becomes 'Hannover' in Tent's little book.
We are told Leibniz was into reviewing. Why then did he not review Newton's Principia? Perhaps because he was embroiled in 1684 (the date of Vol 1) in the Calculus Dispute. Even so, it is a grave fault. L should have made his view of that work very clear given its virtually universal approval soon after.
I think that Tent could and should have given us the original version of L's Calculus. It is what I would have done for sure; what every really good maths teacher exhorts: consult the original paper. In this case, the work will be easy, for his notation is miles better than Newton's fluxions.
Comparing the two books, I prefer Tent's. The clarity is superior but then she is mathematical. I still remember struggling and failing to understand what Antognazza meant by Ramism (p39) which occupies a decent number of unintelligible pages because of it.
Am I any the wiser for reading Tent's work? Not much. I still do not know much about him as a thinker, a person, a character, a dinner guest, a friend. That really would take imagination. We know nothing of his sexuality (about Newton's we learnt a lot from Frank Manuel and Richard Westfall eg in their different books) or his methods and systems of work. He was a professional scholar in an age with few such. Like Newton in his passion for knowledge: an autodidact.
We should know far more than we do. What he was like, his distinguishing characteristics, will be there in all the documents when studied carefully from this point of view. A task that others will undertake in the future. He was not just a thinking machine.
That, then, is where Margaret Tent's book fails: the novel form should have made it possible to reveal this by imagination working on the lives of other mathematicians (such as Jaques Hadamard: 'The Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical field' eg), philosophers and pioneer jurists. Even so, I commend this book. Of course L's philosophy should have got an airing, despite the focus on series and Calculus.
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