[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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