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Who Gave You the Cauchy-Weierstrass Tale? The Dual History of Rigorous Calculus

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Abstract

Cauchy's contribution to the foundations of analysis is often viewed through the lens of developments that occurred some decades later, namely the formalisation of analysis on the basis of the epsilon-delta doctrine in the context of an Archimedean continuum. What does one see if one refrains from viewing Cauchy as if he had read Weierstrass already? One sees, with Felix Klein, a parallel thread for the development of analysis, in the context of an infinitesimal-enriched continuum. One sees, with Emile Borel, the seeds of the theory of rates of growth of functions as developed by Paul du Bois-Reymond. One sees, with E. G. Björling, an infinitesimal definition of the criterion of uniform convergence. Cauchy's foundational stance is hereby reconsidered.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)245-276
Number of pages32
JournalFoundations of Science
Volume17
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2012

Keywords

  • Archimedean axiom
  • Bernoulli
  • Cauchy
  • Continuity
  • Continuum
  • Epsilontics
  • Felix Klein
  • Hyperreals
  • Infinitesimal
  • Stolz
  • Sum theorem
  • Transfer principle
  • Ultraproduct
  • Weierstrass
  • du Bois-Reymond

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General
  • History and Philosophy of Science

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