Abstract

We owe the construction of the theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ) to G. S. Altschuller, thanks to which tens of thousands of patents have been obtained in the last decades. In this paper, we will review some of the characteristics that allow us to claim for TRIZ the title of Leibniz's ars inveniendi. Among these, we mention the fact that it consists of: lists, tables, inventories (including that of the basic principles of invention and a catalogue of “simple concepts”), combinatorial rules, protocols leading from effect to cause, analysis and synthesis, various forms of “encyclopaedias”, a repertory of model problems with their corresponding solutions, with examples, with signs representing their structure and the way the problem was solved, and all ultimately oriented towards the happiness.