Is there someone more /lit/ than Leibniz?

[Anonymous No.13325232]

I used to think it was something like a tie between Blake, Milton, Goethe, Lady Murasaki, Flaubert, Joyce or Dante, but it's actually Leibniz.

> reads and writes in multiple languages
> after his father's death, he leaves him a huge library containing all from philosophy, science, math, art, poetry, fiction, religion... reads like a maniac from age 7 and is proficient in Latin at age 12.
> invented modern calculus (fuck off Newton you alchemical asshole careerist)
> the first, or one of the first, to invent the modern calculator
> almost accidentally invented what would later became game theory
> genius polymath, writes about math, science, law, medicine, philosophy for pleasure.
> phylosophical theist
> got rejected by his crush and was devastated, still declares this: "The best possible of all worlds"
> has many friends and well-liked by all kinds of people with many different opinions
> original bloomer
> did Deleuze the way Deleuze couldn't Deleuze.
> well known and immortal status, but "obscure" enough (in the sense that they don't actually read him) not to have his philosophy bastartised
> Voltaire made fun of him, but could not destroy his reputation.
> influenced Borges
> lovely signature, and writes only his last name, Leibniz, down, because you know him
> wears a wig, but actually makes it work
> The Monad
...

[Anonymous No.13325246]

>>13325232
+ also has a biscuit brand named after him, (Newton would just sound weird).

[Anonymous No.13326136]

>>13325232
Addison, Spectator #'s 411-421-
Extended Essay on the pleasures of the imagination; I doubt very seriously it's been surpassed up until this day.
In English nothing's more /lit/ and less read than the entire series; though neither by Addison nor Steele there's even an essay on Jezebels somewhere in the third volume that reads like the heady original of the common incel complaint here.

[Anonymous No.13326147]

>>13325232

Leibniz sounds like a Mary Sue

[Anonymous No.13326159]

He also invented mathematical logic way befofe Russel and the gang.

[Anonymous No.13326179]

>>13326136
Reading then now. There's a great one in the Tatler that's essentially the Chad/Virgin meme, where two soldiers, Mr Constant and Mr Rakehell both send a letter to the same woman

[Anonymous No.13326189]

>>13325232
>bruh if these two things are identical then they are identical
Wow, what was Leibniz smoking for that one?! Revolutionary!

[Anonymous No.13326243]

>>13326179
Youve just inspired me to hunt down the Jezebel essay. Given the context of the new version of this board it's hilarious

[Anonymous No.13326335]

>>13326179
Here it is (the beginning, at least)
Budgell's first number, 175, Sept. 20, 1711.

[Anonymous No.13326928]

>>13325232
You forget the part where he is a spy disguised as a diplomat, the part where he dabs on the emperor and ends up writing a peace treaty and the part where he plans a genocide of muslims.

[Anonymous No.13326958]

>>13325232
Was one of the first Europeans to learn Mandarin, which is even more impressive when you consider he never went to China and to my knowledge never met a Chinese person

[Anonymous No.13326977]

>>13326335
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/12030/12030-h/12030-h/SV1/Spectator1.html#section175

[Anonymous No.13327081]

>>13326958
Not really, there had been Europeans learning Mandarin for some time then. He lived in the second half of the 17th century, not in antiquity. There were many missionaries in China, merchants, even illiterate seamen speaking Chinese by picking it up from regular visits. Interest in sinology was unusual for someone that didn't have to go there though.

[Anonymous No.13327319]

Definitely a big-brained lad, but he still ends up in the dirt like the rest of us.

[Anonymous No.13327543]

He also created the modern binary system

[Anonymous No.13327585]

>>13325246

fig newtons

[Anonymous No.13328028]

>>13326136
Based post, Addison is one of the greatest ever English language prose writers.

[Anonymous No.13328087]

>>13327585
Thanks anon. I did not know that these things are called that, still, they do taste kinda weird.

[Anonymous No.13328244]

>>13326977
Thanks, m8. What I should have done..
Budgell's 3rd turns out

[Anonymous No.13328426]

Uncharacteristically, Guenon also praised his work and said it showed metaphysical understanding, even if it did stop a bit short of the eastern doctrines.

[Anonymous No.13328440]

>>13325232
Peirce was better than Leibniz at all of those things

[Anonymous No.13328452]

>>13328440
Except at being well liked.

[Anonymous No.13328903]

>>13326136
I've only read The de Coverley Papers. It was really good; how's the rest of The Spectator hold up?

[Anonymous No.13328923]

he borrowed a bunch of his philosophy from daoism/buddhism without ever giving credit. he has a japanese friend explain eastern philosophy to him. since he is an opportunist who refused giving them credit for his stolen ideas the rest of the claims are even more dubious. if you're seriously some intellectual that only purses thought then why would you neglect the source you're taking stuff from? his "original" ideas are quite literally just worse explained and stood concepts from daoism and buddhism

[Anonymous No.13328943]

>>13328903
I actually read that volume when I was a kid (given the extent of The Spectator he really appears very little) so it was actually the first Addison/Steele I experienced as well. In former times he was evidently a big deal as a dance was named after him (in Christmas Carol the ghost of xmas past shows Scrooge dancing it at Fezziwig's party) etc.
They're remarkably good- hit me totally by surprise. Learned recently that both Christopher Wren and Isaac Newton were subscribers fwiw
Also interesting to note that though a Whig both Pope and Swift (and later Johnson) respected him enormously.

[Anonymous No.13328962]

>>13328943
Swift originally had Whig leanings and even gave Addison ideas for the spectator, they were good friends for a long time, but their friendship cooled as Swift shifted his sympathies to the Tories.

[Anonymous No.13328980]

>>13328923
That's actually Heideggar that you're describing lol

[Anonymous No.13329027]

>>13328962
Not surprising, but a little saddened as I enjoy both their works. How Spectator was able to maintain the quality it did 6 days a week seems almost supernatural to me because it almost never lags in terms of quality for over 550 numbers- each essay about 2500 words! I'm sure help and advice was coming from many sides given its enormous success, however. Steele's color is almost the perfect relief from Addison's incisiveness too. It's just an incredible joint work of art. If nothing else is read of it I do rec 411-421 as per original post.

[Anonymous No.13329075]

>>13328452
When I think Peirce I think of Jarry in terms of life lived- any more poverty stricken geniuses come to mind who did little or nothing to better their circumstances?

[Anonymous No.13329077]

>>13329027
I'm reading Selections from the Spectator and the Tatler right now, the prose is consistently coruscating and clear, there is a deep love for mankind throughout, a great deal of measured wisdom in each essayand I quite enjoy the gentle prodding of the Horatian style satire as opposed to the invective Juvenalian style satire of Swift.

[Anonymous No.13329078]

>>13328980
yeah, my mistake. most of western philosophers are just ripping off daoism and buddhism. i forgot leibniz was the one who invented "monism" and was obsessed with i ching trying to convert the emperor into a christard iirc. his math was legitimate at least

[Anonymous No.13329131]

>>13329077
Yeah, as an essayist Addison's of a higher order. I know Cato (his major play) made waves beyond its own day but I've never read it; any experience in that regard? Some of his light lyric verse is as exquisite as some of Byron's (where Byron *really* shines outside of the neo-Swiftean Don Juan).
What Swift has of course is his novel, his great tale, and his uneven journal.

[Anonymous No.13329165]

>>13329077
Btw a good way to get all the volumes (8 in 4 books) is to aim for old Everyman cloth or hardbacks via ABE or some similar book service. Good old editions can be had relatively cheaply. Old Oxford pockets and Nelson's Classics also offered complete Spectators through the middle of the 20th c. any of which would be acceptable too, of course. For classics in general I believe it's the way to go.

[Anonymous No.13329181]

Dude must of had like 200 IQ

[Anonymous No.13329324]

>>13329078
buddhism is largely just ripping off the pre-buddhist Upanishads tbqh so I suppose it's just fair game at that point

[Anonymous No.13329599]

>>13329078
Wow you're fucking retarded. Read something else.

[Anonymous No.13329980]

>>13328440
>Anglo larper is better than a man actually achieving things
Sure.

Leibniz has perhaps the purest French language of any non-fiction writer. And it wasn't even his native language, just a Frenchboo.
>B-but you'll never get languages that mommy didn't speak with you

[Anonymous No.13329984]

>>13328923
>a man in 1680 that had never met a single chink is so powerful he mind read Orientals from the other side of the planet
>his philosophy, centered on epistemautism and positivity of being, is entirely opposite to theirs though
So this is the power of tradition larping.

[Anonymous No.13330165]

Proclus.
The Original Leibniz (his Ethics is a "spiritual successor" of the Elements of Theology, to give him some credit).

[Anonymous No.13330686]

>>13329980
Peirce read nearly every major western philosopher and scientist in their original language. Including the Egyptian hieroglyphs.