[FOM] The influence of Leibniz on Russell
Roger Bishop Jones
rbj at rbjones.com
Wed May 2 16:51:18 EDT 2007
Russell studied (and wrote his book on) Leibniz before his work
on "The Principles of Mathematics" and "Principia Mathematica".
Does anyone know whether he was acquainted with Leibniz's ideas
about the "Lingua Characteristica" and the "Calculus
Ratiocinator" and whether these had any role in motivating his
work on the foundations of mathematics?
I know of only three examples of work in logic which is
explicitly based on or inspired by these ideas of Leibniz:
1. Frege's citing the lingua characteristica as influencing his
work on the Begriffschrift
2. the "calculemus" project, which aims to integrate theorem
proving and computer algebra software
3. Martin Davis's book "The Universal Computer".
Does anyone know of any other examples?
Roger Jones
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