Journal article
Leibniz’s syncategorematic infinitesimals
Abstract
In contrast with some recent theories of infinitesimals as non-Archimedean entities, Leibniz’s mature interpretation was fully in accord with the Archimedean Axiom: infinitesimals are fictions, whose treatment as entities incomparably smaller than finite quantities is justifiable wholly in terms of variable finite quantities that can be taken as small as desired, i.e. syncategorematically. In this paper I explain this syncategorematic …
Authors
Arthur RTW
Journal
Archive for History of Exact Sciences, Vol. 67, No. 5, pp. 553–593
Publisher
Springer Nature
Publication Date
September 2013
DOI
10.1007/s00407-013-0119-z
ISSN
0003-9519