“Was not their mistake once more bred of the life of slavery that they had been living?—a life which was always looking upon everything, except mankind, animate and inanimate—‘nature,’ as people used to call it—as one thing, and mankind as another, it was natural to people thinking in this way, that they should try to make ‘nature’ their slave, since they thought ‘nature’ was something outside them” — William Morris


Saturday, March 5, 2011

Jeffrey Bell on Leibniz and Spinoza


If you haven't already treat yourself to some time at Jeffrey Bell's blog, in which he delves into affinities and differences between Spinoza and Leibniz. His latest is on Spinoza and OOO. It's really wonderful fresh stuff. Makes you feel good to be alive, really.

The machine above was invented by Leibniz in 1671, and it can do simple calculations when you crank it by hand. It's an upgrade of a machine invented by Pascal in 1646.

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