Title: Infinitesimal differences :
Authors: Goldenbaum, Ursula; Jesseph, Douglas Michael.; Emory University
Date: 2008
Publisher: Walter De Gruyter,
Physical description: vi, 327 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Language: English
LC classification: B
Abstract: "The development of the calculus during the 17th century was successful in mathematical practice, but raised questions about the nature of infinitesimals: were they real or rather fictitious? This collection of essays, by scholars from Canada, the US, Germany, United Kingdom and Switzerland, gives a comprehensive study of the controversies over the nature and status of the infinitesimal. Aside from Leibniz, the scholars considered are Hobbes, Wallis, Newton, Bernoulli, Hermann, and Nieuwentijt. The collection also contains newly discovered marginalia of Leibniz to the writings of Hobbes."--Jacket.
Contents: Leery bedfellows : Newton and Leibniz on the status of infinitesimals / Richard Arthur -- Infinity, infinitesimals, and the reform of Cavalieri : John Wallis and his critics / Philip Beeley -- Indivisibilia vera : how Leibniz came to love mathematics. Appendix : Leibniz's marginalia in Hobbes' Opera philosophica and De corpore / Ursula Goldenbaum -- Indivisibles and infinitesimals in early mathematical texts of Leibniz / Siegmund Probst -- Archimedes, infinitesimals and the law of continuity : on Leibniz's fictionalism / Samuel Levey -- An enticing (im)possibility : infinitesimals, differentials, and the Leibnizian calculus / O. Bradley Bassler -- Productive ambiguity in Leibniz's representation of infinitesimals / Emily Grosholz -- Generality and infinitely small quantities in Leibniz's mathematics : the case of his arithmetical quadrature of conic sections and related curves / Eberhard Knobloch -- Leibniz's calculation with compendia / Herbert Breger -- Nieuwentijt, Leibniz, and Jacob Hermann on infinitesimals / Fritz Nagel -- Truth in fiction : origins and consequences of Leibniz's doctrine of infinitesimal magnitudes / Douglas Jesseph -- Rule of continuity and infinitesimals in Leibniz's physics / François Duchesneau -- Leibniz on infinitesimals and the reality of force / Donald Rutherford -- Dead force, infinitesimals, and the mathematicization of nature / Daniel Garber.
Notes: "This volume had its beginnings in a conference entitled The Metaphysical and Mathematical Discussion os the Status of Infinitesimals in Leibniz's Time held in April 2006 at Emory University"--Introd.
Subject headings (LCSH): Calculus.; Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, Freiherr von, 1646-1716--Criticism and interpretation--Congresses.; Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, Freiherr von, 1646-1716--Knowledge and learning--Congresses.; Mathematics--Philosophy--Congresses.; Physics--Philosophy--Congresses.