Leibniz’s Dream
It is tempting to indulge in a bit of: “What if?” What if Leibniz had
not been shackled to his patrons’ family history, and been free to devote
more time to his calculus rationcinator? Might he not have accomplished
what Boole was only to do so much later? But of course, such speculation
is useless. What Leibniz has left us is his dream, but even this dream can
fill us with admiration for the power of human speculative thought and can
serve as a yardstick for judging later developments.
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