[HM] Leibniz's "let us calculate"?

Robert Tragesser (RTragesser@compuserve.com)
Sun, 23 May 1999 17:02:36 -0400

I've been asked for the source of Leibniz's much cited "let us
calculate." My best track on this is that it does not occur in
Leibniz's (published, available) writings but, rather, derives
from a memoir of some contemporary of Leibniz, that whenever
anyone engaged Leibniz on any matter requiring thought/reason
(by no means just mathematics), he is supposed to have begun
with something like, "Well, let's calculate." This must be
apocryphal, for of course Leibniz was in no position to
literally do that.

robert tragesser
west(running)brook, ct.