  Leibniz stresses in the “Nouveaux essais” that syllogistic is part of a sort of universal mathematics, an art of infallibility (art d’infaillibilité). This art is not restricted to syllogisms, but concerns all kinds of formal proofs, i.e. all reasoning in which inferences are executed by virtue of their form (NE, ch. XVII, §4). According to Leibniz, there are some problems with algebra in that it is still far from being an art of invention. It has to be supplemented by a general art of signs or an art of characteristic (NE, ch. XVII, §9).