Who Discovered the Binary System and Arithmetic? Did Leibniz Plagiarize
Caramuel?
SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING ETHICS 2018;
24:173-188. [PMID:
28281152 DOI:
10.1007/s11948-017-9890-6]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2016] [Accepted: 02/14/2017] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) is the self-proclaimed inventor of the binary system and is considered as such by most historians of mathematics and/or mathematicians. Really though, we owe the groundwork of today's computing not to Leibniz but to the Englishman Thomas Harriot and the Spaniard Juan Caramuel de Lobkowitz (1606-1682), whom Leibniz plagiarized. This plagiarism has been identified on the basis of several facts: Caramuel's work on the binary system is earlier than Leibniz's, Leibniz was acquainted-both directly and indirectly-with Caramuel's work and Leibniz had a natural tendency to plagiarize scientific works.
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