Aristotle's prohibition rule on kind-crossing and the definition of mathematics as a science of quantities (Q987471): Difference between revisions

According to an influential older conception, mathematics is `the science of quantities'. But what exactly is meant by this? The article disentangles three different conceptions of mathematics as the science of quantities. One derives from Proclus' interpretation of Aristotle. Another derives from Euclid. A third conception is connected to developments in algebra. The article also discusses the prohibition rule on kind-crossing formulated by Aristotle in \textit{Posterior analytics}. This rule is used to distinguish between conceptions that share the same name but are substantively different: for example the search for a broader genus including all mathematical objects; the search for a common character of different species of mathematical objects; and the effort to treat magnitudes as numbers.