Includes bibliographical references and index.

Among his extraordinary mathematical and philosophical achievements, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) invented binary arithmetic, the representational basis for today's world of digital computing and communications. This book will be the first to make a selection of his writings available in English. Strickland and Lewis provide an accessible introduction to Leibniz through some twenty mostly unpublished manuscripts dealing with binary notation, algorithms for binary arithmetic, and related topics. The book includes an introduction analyzing the history of the binary system and Leibniz's claim to priority and short introductions to each of the chapters.