INTRODUCTION 579
discredit of all concerned.” It may be best to credit both men with the discovery.
It is interesting that Leibniz’s notation proved the more convenient and is the
system currently used.
In 1676, Leibniz went into the service of the Duke of Brunswick in Hanover,
where he remained the rest of his life. He traveled extensively and met notable
people such as Spinoza and the chemist Robert Boyle. In 1700, he was elected a
foreign member of the French Academy. In the same year, by his inspiration, the
Akademie der Wissenschaftenwas founded in Berlin and he was elected its first
president. He was a close friend of Sophie Charlotte, the wife of the Elector of
Brandenburg (subsequently the first king of Prussia). The only large systematic
philosophic work he published,Theodicy(1710), grew out of his discussions with
Sophie Charlotte.
Despite his accomplishments, Leibniz was not well liked. As Bertrand Russell
later commented, “Leibniz was one of the supreme intellects of all time, but he
was not admirable.” Leibniz’s death in 1716 was ignored not only by the Royal
Society in London but also by the Akademiein Berlin and by the court at
Hanover. His secretary is said to have been his only mourner, and an eyewitness
reports in his memoirs that Leibniz “was buried more like a robber than what he
really was, the ornament of his country.”Leibniz Stamp,1980. Leibniz’s death in 1716 was ignored by virtually everyone and, as one eyewitness
said, he “was buried more like a robber than what he really was, the ornament of his country.” The neglect
of Leibniz in his lifetime has given way to great admiration for the scope and originality of his thought.
(Deutsche Bundespost)