Abstract

This is a welcome addition to the scant literature in English on the life of the great seventeenth-century German philosopher and polymath, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. No full-scale biography of Leibniz has appeared in English since John Milton Mackie devised a condensation of G. E. Guhrauer’s still standard work in 1845. Some material from unpublished papers was incorporated into J. T. Merz’s account. Since then virtually nothing has been attempted in this area of Leibniz scholarship, in spite of the fact that much important work has been done, especially in German, culminating in the fine Leben und Werk von. G. W. Leibniz by Kurt Müller and Gisela Krönert. If for no other reason than the dearth of English treatments of the subject, Mr. Aiton’s biography would be a significant contribution.