# Ars Magna **Domain:** Logic / combinatorics / intellectual history **Doc Type:** Work-and-Method Node **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition The **_Ars Magna_** is Ramon Llull's combinatorial logical project, using figures and rule-governed combinations of concepts to generate and examine propositions. ## Machine-Intelligence Lineage [[wiki/Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz|Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz]] named Llull's art within his own project for a universal characteristic and calculus of reasoning. That citation makes the _Ars Magna_ a documented predecessor in the [[wiki/Transmitted Objective|transmitted-objective]] history of symbolic computation. ## Evidence Ledger ### Established - Llull's system used combinatorial diagrams and procedural rules. - Leibniz engaged the Lullian art in his own combinatorial work. ### Strongly indicated - The system transmitted an objective of operationalized reasoning into early modern formal logic. ### Plausible - Its diagrammatic procedure is a conceptual ancestor of symbolic search. ### Unresolved - Which later computational methods inherited Llull directly rather than through intervening logical traditions. ## Sources / Provenance - [Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Ramon Llull”](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/llull/). ## Relationships - **Author:** [[wiki/Ramon Llull|Ramon Llull]]. - **Named successor:** [[wiki/Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz|Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz]]. - **Method:** [[wiki/Transmitted Objective|Transmitted Objective]]. - **Source:** [[articles/A History of Machine Intelligence|A History of Machine Intelligence]].