Diplomat and court councilor to the house of Brunswick in Hanover, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) was born in Leipzig on July 1. By the age of twenty-one he had earned a doctorate of law and written a Dissertation on the Art of Combination, which allowed him to lecture in philosophy. Though he never formally held an academic position (he had jobs as a jurist, librarian, mining engineer, and historian), his duties in Hanover enabled him to travel and meet many well-known thinkers of his time, such as mathematician Christian Huygens (1629–1695), who tutored Leibniz in mathematics during the latter's visit to Paris from 1672 through 1676. While he published several scholarly articles and only one book during his lifetime, the Theodicy, his large body of posthumously published work reveals Leibniz's contributions to mathematics, logic, science, law, philosophy, and ethics.

A rationalist, Leibniz exhibited a characteristically modern ambition with an...