title: Who Discovered the Binary System and Arithmetic? Did Leibniz Plagiarize Caramuel?
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.
authors.affiliation: University of A Coruña, Campus de Elviña, s/n, 15071, A Coruña, Spain.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ares
authors.affiliation: UDIMA-Madrid Open University, Carretera de La Coruña, K. 38.500, Vía de Servicio, Nº 15, 28400, Collado Villalba, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lara
authors.affiliation: UDIMA-Madrid Open University, Carretera de La Coruña, K. 38.500, Vía de Servicio, Nº 15, 28400, Collado Villalba, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lizcano
authors.affiliation: UDIMA-Madrid Open University, Carretera de La Coruña, K. 38.500, Vía de Servicio, Nº 15, 28400, Collado Villalba, Madrid, Spain. mariaaurora.martinez@udima.es.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Martínez
mesh_terms: D004739:England; D005197:Famous Persons; D005858:Germany; D049670:History, 17th Century; D006801:Humans; D062069:Inventions / Q000266:history*; D008433:Mathematics / Q000941:ethics / Q000266:history*; D015714:Plagiarism; D013030:Spain
keywords: Binary system; Caramuel; Leibniz; Plagiarism