[limit499karma]

> the provocative claim

Leibniz made that claim centuries ago in his critical remarks on John Locke's Essay on Human Understanding. Leibniz specifically said that Locke's lack of mathematical knowledge led him to (per Leibniz) his philosophical errors regarding the nature of 'substance'.

https://www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/leibniz1705book...

[vundercind]

I haven't read his Human Understanding, but his Second Treatise is really weak in ways that can't really be blamed on lack of mathematical training (unless we're going with "all rigorous thinking is math") so there may be more to it in his case than just "he didn't study math enough".

[limit499karma]

Leibniz wasn't saying that "rigorous thinking" is only available to mathematically trained or that Locke's reasoning was not "rigorous".

His critique of Locke was that one can not have a correct model of human understanding (or world model) based on purely philosophical means, and that the lack of exposure to certain aspects of modern mathematics (that was emerging at that time) was the basis of Locke's misunderstandings.