Calculus ratiocinator

The calculus ratiocinator is a theoretical universal logical calculation framework, a concept described in the writings of Gottfried Leibniz, usually paired with his more frequently mentioned characteristica universalis, a universal conceptual language. There are two contrasting points of view on what Leibniz meant by calculus ratiocinator. The first is associated with computer software, the second is associated with computer hardware. The received point of view in analytic philosophy and formal logic, is that the calculus ratiocinator anticipates mathematical logic—an "algebra of logic". The analytic point of view understands that the calculus ratiocinator is a formal inference engine or computer program, which can be designed so as to grant primacy to calculations. That logic began with Frege's 1879 Begriffsschrift and C.S. Peirce's writings on logic in the 1880s. Frege intended his "concept script" to be a calculus ratiocinator as well as a universal characteristics. That part of formal logic relevant to the calculus comes under the heading of proof theory. From this perspective the calculus ratiocinator is only a part (or a subset) of the universal characteristics, and a complete universal characteristics includes a "logical calculus". A contrasting point of view stems from synthetic philosophy and fields such as cybernetics, electronic engineering, and general systems theory. It is little appreciated in analytic philosophy. The synthetic view understands the calculus ratiocinator as referring to a "calculating machine". The cybernetician Norbert Wiener considered Leibniz's calculus ratiocinator a forerunner to the modern day digital computer: "The history of the modern computing machine goes back to Leibniz and Pascal. Indeed, the general idea of a computing machine is nothing but a mechanization of Leibniz's calculus ratiocinator." "...like his predecessor Pascal, [Leibniz] was interested in the construction of computing machines in the Metal. ...