Realising the Enlightenment: H.T. Odum’s Energy Systems Language qua G.W.v Leibniz’s Characteristica Universalis

Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646–1716) is usually regarded as one of the world’s greatest philosophers. If our thesis is right—that the Energy Systems Language is a Characteristica Universalis—the late Howard Thomas Odum (1924–2001) shares in this title. Moreover the work of H.T. Odum and colleagues can be considered a progression of natural science, creatively realising what contemporary German philosopher J. Habermas calls the project of the Enlightenment. As a consequence, H.T. Odum’s work is worthy of far greater historical profundity and philosophical respect than many may have previously imagined.