Another mathematician, Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, improved Pascal's machine and made his own contribution to the philosophy of reasoning by proposing an easier way by making an equation. (We should love these guys; they pretty much invented the calculator.)4 Many of the leading thinkers of the 18th and 19th century were convinced that a formal reasoning system, based on a kind of mathematics, could encode all human thought and be used to solve every sort of problem. Thomas Jefferson, for example, was sure that such a system existed, and only needed to be discovered. ... "Cybernetics,...

• Word Count: 5546
• Approx Pages: 22
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School