Mathesis universalis

Frontispiece of Operum Mathematicorum Pars Prima (1657) by John Wallis, the first volume of Opera Mathematica including a chapter entitled Mathesis Universalis.

Mathesis universalis (from Greek: μάθησις, mathesis "science or learning", and Latin: universalis "universal") is a hypothetical universal science modelled on mathematics envisaged by Descartes and Leibniz, among a number of other 16th- and 17th-century philosophers and mathematicians. For Leibniz, it would be supported by a calculus ratiocinator. John Wallis invokes the name as title in his Opera Mathematica, a textbook on arithmetic, algebra, and Cartesian geometry.


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