Leibniz's syncategorematic infinitesimals (Q363509)
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Leibniz's syncategorematic infinitesimals (English)
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3 September 2013
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The author shows that Leibniz's mature interpretation of the calculus was fully in accord with the Archimedean axiom: infinitesimals stand for variable finite quantities that can be taken as small as desired (syncategorematic infinitesimals) (Section 2 of the paper). But the author explains much more than this well-known fact: He compares Leibniz's infinitesimals with those of Bell's smooth infinitesimal analysis (SIA) published in 1998. Hence, in Section 3, he gives a brief synopsis of SIA. Both notions of infinitesimals use non-punctiform infinitesimals and the resolution of curves into infinite-sided polygons. The Leibnizian polygonal representation of curves is closely related to Bell's principle of microstraightness. Yet, there are crucial differences. They are dealt with in Sections 4 and 5. To that end, the author applies these different notions to demonstrate some propositions of Newton's \textit{Principia}. In particular, he studies Leibniz's second-order differentials. Leibniz is entitled to them under the fiction that they are infinitely small quantities, too, provided an independent variable is identified.
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calculus
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Newton's \textit{Principia}
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higher-order infinitesimals
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smooth infinitesimal analysis
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