СПОР О ПРАВАХ НА ИНТЕЛЕКТУАЛЬНУЮ СОБСТВЕННОСТЬ
Useful Vocabulary:
Isaac Newton – Исаак Ньютон
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz - Готфрид Вильгельм Лейбниц
to credit – приписывать; ставить в заслугу
a mathematician – математик
to invent – изобрести
study of calculus – изучение исчисления
after all – к тому же; не стоит забывать, что
Opticks – «Оптика»
to assert - провозглашать, заявлять
to arise (arose, arisen) – возникать (о вопросе, проблеме)
respective – соответствующий
to stake a claim (for) – начать претендовать (на)
advances – достижения
fluxions – производные
apparently – очевидно
a colleague – коллега
to heat up – разгореться, вспыхнуть
to accuse sb of – обвинить кого-то в чем-то
to plagiarize - незаконно заимствовать
drafts – наброски
to settle – уладить, урегулировать
Isaac Newton v. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
By the early 18th century, many credited the German mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz with inventing the study of calculus. Leibniz had, after all, been the first to publish papers on the topic in 1684 and 1686. But when Englishman Isaac Newton published a book called Opticks in 1704, in which he asserted himself as the father of calculus, a debate arose. Each of the thinkers’ respective countries wanted to stake a claim in what was one of the biggest advances in mathematics. Newton claimed to have thought up the “science of fluxions,” as he called it, first. He apparently wrote about the branch of mathematics in 1665 and 1666, but only shared his work with a few colleagues. As the battle between the two intellectuals heated up, Newton accused Leibniz of plagiarizing one of these early circulating drafts. But Leibniz died in 1716 before anything was settled. Today, however, historians accept that Newton and Leibniz were co-inventors, having come to the idea independently of each other.