The continuous, the discrete and the infinitesimal in philosophy and mathematics (Q2419909): Difference between revisions

This book consists of two parts. In the first part the author discusses the history and philosophy of the concepts continuous, discrete and infinitesimal from the Greeks until the early twentieth century. As far as I can see in this part the author succeeds in giving a quite complete overview of the subject, including not only the obvious sources. He discusses also the views of oriental, Islamic and medieval European authors, and, for example, the ideas of Hegel, Du Bois Reymond, Veronese and Brentano. The second part is devoted to the role that the notions continuous, discrete and infinitesimal play in modern mathematics, in topology, category theory, constructivist analysis, non-standard analysis and smooth infinitesimal analysis. The second part is quite a natural sequel to the first part although inevitably more technical.