{"id":4860,"date":"2025-04-23T13:58:06","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T13:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/?p=4860"},"modified":"2025-04-23T21:45:25","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T21:45:25","slug":"is-leibnizs-prescription-for-discussion-realized-in-ai-when-he-beckons-us-to-calculate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/2025\/04\/23\/is-leibnizs-prescription-for-discussion-realized-in-ai-when-he-beckons-us-to-calculate\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Leibniz&#8217;s prescription for discussion realized in AI when he beckons us to calculate?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">ChatGPT said:<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Great question \u2014 and yes, in a meaningful way, AI could be seen as a partial realization of Leibniz\u2019s dream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Leibniz famously said: <em>\u201cLet us calculate, without further ado, to see who is right.\u201d<\/em> His vision was for a <em>characteristica universalis<\/em> \u2014 a universal logical language \u2014 and a <em>calculus ratiocinator<\/em>, a reasoning engine that could resolve disputes by computation rather than debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In some respects, modern AI \u2014 especially symbolic logic systems, theorem provers, and even large language models like me \u2014 can be seen as steps toward that. Here&#8217;s how:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Formalization of Argument<\/strong>: Tools like automated theorem provers and symbolic AI allow logical propositions to be encoded and tested systematically \u2014 essentially what Leibniz envisioned.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Dispute Resolution<\/strong>: In domains like legal reasoning, AI can already help identify inconsistencies, suggest precedents, and weigh logical consequences \u2014 again echoing Leibniz\u2019s dream of resolving disputes through reasoned calculation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Language and Semantics<\/strong>: While large language models don&#8217;t reason in the strict formal-logical sense Leibniz imagined, they <em>do<\/em> process vast semantic relationships in language and generate arguments \u2014 albeit probabilistically rather than deductively.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>But Leibniz also hoped for a kind of universal clarity and <em>truth<\/em> from such a system \u2014 and here\u2019s where we fall short. Much of human disagreement isn\u2019t about logic or calculation, but about values, meanings, and premises \u2014 areas where even AI can\u2019t simply \u201ccalculate\u201d an answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Would you say the AI should aim to become more like the <em>calculus ratiocinator<\/em>, or is its current metaphorical, language-based capacity closer to the real spirit of human conversation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>4o<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Search<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reason<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ChatGPT said: Great question \u2014 and yes, in a meaningful way, AI could be seen as a partial realization of Leibniz\u2019s dream. Leibniz famously said: \u201cLet us calculate, without further ado, to see who is right.\u201d His vision was for a characteristica universalis \u2014 a universal logical language \u2014 and a calculus ratiocinator, a reasoning &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/2025\/04\/23\/is-leibnizs-prescription-for-discussion-realized-in-ai-when-he-beckons-us-to-calculate\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Is Leibniz&#8217;s prescription for discussion realized in AI when he beckons us to calculate?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ai-assist","category-philosophy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4860"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4861,"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4860\/revisions\/4861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ditext.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}