Mind, symbolism, formalism: Is Leibniz a precursor of artificial intelligence?

Abstract

The assumption that Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz is a precursor of the idea of Artificial Intelligence is misleading. The argument is to distinguish between episteme and mind, recognit on and cognition. Leibniz interpreted formal symbolic operations as a mere epistemological instrument, but not as a descript on of what actually happens within the mind: Leibniz denied that a machine can be used as an explanative model of cognition.