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. 2018 Feb;24(1):173-188.
doi: 10.1007/s11948-017-9890-6. Epub 2017 Mar 9.

Who Discovered the Binary System and Arithmetic? Did Leibniz Plagiarize Caramuel?

J Ares  1 , J Lara  2 , D Lizcano  2 , M A Martínez  3
Affiliations

Who Discovered the Binary System and Arithmetic? Did Leibniz Plagiarize Caramuel?

J Ares et al. Sci Eng Ethics. 2018 Feb.

Abstract

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) is the self-proclaimed inventor of the binary system and is considered as such by most historians of mathematics and/or mathematicians. Really though, we owe the groundwork of today's computing not to Leibniz but to the Englishman Thomas Harriot and the Spaniard Juan Caramuel de Lobkowitz (1606-1682), whom Leibniz plagiarized. This plagiarism has been identified on the basis of several facts: Caramuel's work on the binary system is earlier than Leibniz's, Leibniz was acquainted-both directly and indirectly-with Caramuel's work and Leibniz had a natural tendency to plagiarize scientific works.

Keywords: Binary system; Caramuel; Leibniz; Plagiarism.

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References

    1. Sci Eng Ethics. 2008 Sep;14(3):311-22 - PubMed

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