Dispensing with the continuum (Q1368388)

For many years, there have been attempts to present portions of Robinson-styled nonstandard analysis in a weaker form using weaker hypotheses. This is yet another example of such an attempt relative to concepts that appear finitary and more closely aligned with constructionism. An axiom system called ERNA is proposed informally. The definition of the derivative is then expressed partially in the usual nonstandard format but without the standard part operator. The authors informally show how their ERNA system approximately establishes the basic existence theorem for first-order ordinary differential equations. Their result is not exactly what one would consider as completely equivalent to the standard, but is only approximate in character. It is clear that, at least, one of the axioms of ERNA, recursion, is so stated that just such a result as given in this paper can be established using the usual methods that have previously employed to establish this result. Other material relative to ERNA is also informally discussed. Unfortunately, modern infinitesimal modeling, used to answer some of the most significant physical problems of interest to empirical science, may contradict the authors' philosophical thesis that ``the continuum is dispensable in the mathematics that is used in empirical science''.