Ten misconceptions from the history of analysis and their debunking

DOI10.1007/S10699-012-9285-8zbMATH Open1291.01018OpenAlexW2154088964WikidataQ54052778 ScholiaQ54052778MaRDI QIDQ360440FDOQ360440

Authors: Piotr Błaszczyk, Mikhail G. Katz, David Sherry 

Publication date: 27 August 2013

Published in: Foundations of Science (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: The widespread idea that infinitesimals were "eliminated" by the "great triumvirate" of Cantor, Dedekind, and Weierstrass is refuted by an uninterrupted chain of work on infinitesimal-enriched number systems. The elimination claim is an oversimplification created by triumvirate followers, who tend to view the history of analysis as a pre-ordained march toward the radiant future of Weierstrassian epsilontics. In the present text, we document distortions of the history of analysis stemming from the triumvirate ideology of ontological minimalism, which identified the continuum with a single number system. Such anachronistic distortions characterize the received interpretation of Stevin, Leibniz, d'Alembert, Cauchy, and others.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1202.4153

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zbMATH Keywords

continuumhyperreal numbersnonstandard analysisinfinitesimalsreal numbers

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

History of mathematics in the 19th century (01A55) History of real functions (26-03)

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