A small selection of Enlish Language Leibniz studies
The problem with Leibniz scholarship is that today’s academic world is highly specialized whereas Leibniz himself was a true polymath. As a result, you have many books on a narrow segment of Leibniz’s thought. This page is to gain a wider appreciation of his mind. Leibniz is known today as a philosopher by some and to others as a mathematician, but only a select few appreciate him as a sythetic whole which is, at the same time, a world authority on: law, Chinese studies, linguistics, logic, biology, geology, economics, history and so many other subjects. There are few areas of modern specialization that Leibniz did not at some point touch. This page is to present a more complete view of Leibniz through the resources below. Note, some older books use the outdated spelling “Leibnitz”.
-Gary Geck

Free Books:  [Go to to my Podcast Page for my reading of Leibniz's Monadology and prefatory note by Latta.]

• Leibnitz’s Memoir on Egypt (fascinating piece)
• Life of Godfrey William von Leibnitz By John Milton Mackie (full biography)
• Leibnitz/Clarks (Newton) Correspondence (by British author)
• Leibnitz: New essays concerning human Understanding (his classic refutation of Locke)
• The monadology and other philosophical writings Robert Latta translation (recommended)
• The architectonic of philosophy: Plato, Aristotle, Leibniz By Leslie Kavanaugh (2007)

Other Free and Interesting:

• Leibniz Translations.com (Tons of free original translations by Lloyd Stickland!)
• Blog post about “Leibniz’s Funny Thought” or his essay describing a modern science fun park (he was centuries ahead of his time!)

Commercial Books: (Amazon links, but shop around for better prices)

Leibniz and Biology:

Leibniz on Earth Science/Geology/Archeology etc.:
Great quote about this book:

“…Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz is often remembered as the brilliant mathematician and rationalist who possibly invented calculus before Isaac Newton and who was suspicious of John Locke’s empiricist epistemology. But, as Claudine Cohen and Andre Wakefield’s new translation of Leibniz’s Protogaea elegantly reveals, he had many other tantalizing interests….The image of Leibniz that emerges in Protogaea is a bit different from that of the reified rationalist sometimes presented in philosophy courses, or even the number-crunching mathematician whom historians of science have made out to be Newton’s intellectual nemesis. These pages speak to Leibniz’s role as a traveler, chemist, linguist, and antiquarian and, above all, as an inquisitive naturalist seasoned by detailed observations made in situ or sometimes excavated from obscure chorographies and chronicles…”—M. D. EDDY, Isis

Leibniz on Law:

Leibniz and Kabbalah/Mysticism:

Leibniz on China:

Leibniz and Computer Science:

Leibniz and Mathematics:

Leibniz and Logic:

Leibniz on the Mind and Consciousness:

Leibniz and the Arts:

Leibniz and Economics:

Leibniz and Library Sciences (he was a librarian!):

Leibniz and Linguistics:

Leibniz and Controversies/Creating world conspiracies (something he engaged in):

Leibniz and Politics:

Leibnizian physics/Newton clashes:

…and of course Leibniz and Philosophy/Metaphysics:

Other Highly Recommended: