19th-century real analysis, forward and backward

DOI10.14708/AM.V13I1.6440zbMATH Open1523.01006arXiv1907.07451MaRDI QIDQ6164797FDOQ6164797

Authors: Jacques Bair, Piotr Błaszczyk, Peter Heinig, Vladimir Kanovei, Mikhail G. Katz 

Publication date: 4 July 2023

Published in: Antiquitates Mathematicae (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: 19th century real analysis received a major impetus from Cauchy's work. Cauchy mentions variable quantities, limits, and infinitesimals, but the meaning he attached to these terms is not identical to their modern meaning. Some Cauchy historians work in a conceptual scheme dominated by an assumption of a teleological nature of the evolution of real analysis toward a preordained outcome. Thus, Gilain and Siegmund-Schultze assume that references to limite in Cauchy's work necessarily imply that Cauchy was working with an Archi-medean continuum, whereas infinitesimals were merely a convenient figure of speech, for which Cauchy had in mind a complete justification in terms of Archimedean limits. However, there is another formalisation of Cauchy's procedures exploiting his limite, more consistent with Cauchy's ubiquitous use of infinitesimals, in terms of the standard part principle of modern infinitesimal analysis. We challenge a misconception according to which Cauchy was allegedly forced to teach infinitesimals at the Ecole Polytechnique. We show that the debate there concerned mainly the issue of rigor, a separate one from infinitesimals. A critique of Cauchy's approach by his contemporary de Prony sheds light on the meaning of rigor to Cauchy and his contemporaries. An attentive reading of Cauchy's work challenges received views on Cauchy's role in the history of analysis, and indicates that he was a pioneer of infinitesimal techniques as much as a harbinger of the Epsilontik.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1907.07451

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• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 2134675

zbMATH Keywords

continuityhistory of mathematicsinfinitesimalsstandard partbutterfly modellimitevariable quantity

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

History of mathematics in the 19th century (01A55) History of mathematics in the 20th century (01A60) Biographies, obituaries, personalia, bibliographies (01A70) History of real functions (26-03) History of mathematics at specific universities (01A73)

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Cited In (13)

• Procedures of Leibnizian infinitesimal calculus: an account in three modern frameworks
• Continuity between Cauchy and Bolzano: issues of antecedents and priority
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• Bolzano, Cauchy, Epsilon, Delta
• Who gave you the Cauchy-Weierstrass tale? The dual history of rigorous calculus
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• Three case studies in current Leibniz scholarship
• On history of epsilontics
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Cauchy's conception of rigour in analysis

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