Gottfried Leibniz

Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716) was a German philosopher noted especially for his achievements in mathematics.

Characteristica universalis

In 1677, Leibniz proposed a "characteristica universalis", described as an "alphabet of human thought" that would span domains including science, mathematics, and metaphysics. He intended this script to be employed in a "calculus ratiocinator", which has been interpreted alternately as a "logical calculus" and a machine analogous to the "stepped reckoner", a mechanical digital calculator that he had invented around 1672. "No one," he wrote, "has attempted a language or characteristic which includes at once both the arts of discovery and judgement, that is, one whose signs and characters serve the same purpose that arithmetical signs serve for numbers, and algebraic signs for quantities taken abstractly."

Leibniz' proposed "characteristica universalis" is acknowledged in James Cooke Brown's 1960 Scientific American article as an inspiration for Loglan, particularly the ambition to develop and employ an "all-encompassing scientific language".