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Georg Cantor was the genuine discoverer of the Mathematical Infinity, and whatever he claimed, suggested, or even surmised should be taken seriously -- albeit not necessary at its face value. Because alongside his exquisite in beauty…
We present a characterization of the completeness of the field of real numbers in the form of a \emph{collection of several equivalent statements} borrowed from algebra, real analysis, general topology, and non-standard analysis. We also…
For more than a century, Cantor's theory of transfinite numbers has played a pivotal role in set theory, with ramifications that extend to many areas of mathematics. This article extends earlier findings with a fresh look at the critical…
Backwards analysis, first popularized by Seidel, is often the simplest most elegant way of analyzing a randomized algorithm. It applies to incremental algorithms where elements are added incrementally, following some random permutation,…
We examine the classical/intuitionist divide, and how it reflects on modern theories of infinitesimals. When leading intuitionist Heyting announced that "the creation of non-standard analysis is a standard model of important mathematical…
As Weyl was interested in infinitesimal analysis and for some years embraced Brouwer's intuitionism, which he continued to see as an ideal even after he had convinced himself that it is a practical necessity for science to go beyond…
In this paper we offer a reconstruction of the evolution of Leibniz's thought concerning the problem of the infinite divisibility of bodies, the tension between actuality, unassignability and syncategorematicity, and the closely related…
The purpose of this paper is to provide a historical overview of some of the contemporary infinitesimalist alternatives to the Cantor-Dedekind theory of continua. Among the theories we will consider are those that emerge from nonstandard…
In teaching infinitesimal calculus we sought to present basic concepts like continuity and convergence by comparing and contrasting various definitions, rather than presenting "the definition" to the students as a monolithic absolute. We…
While computer programs and logical theories begin by declaring the concepts of interest, be it as data types or as predicates, network computation does not allow such global declarations, and requires *concept mining* and *concept…
We seek to elucidate the philosophical context in which one of the most important conceptual transformations of modern mathematics took place, namely the so-called revolution in rigor in infinitesimal calculus and mathematical analysis.…
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…
This paper presents six theorems and ten propositions that can be read as deconstructing and integrating the continuity postulate under the rubric of pioneering work of Eilenberg, Wold, von Neumann-Morgenstern, Herstein-Milnor and Debreu.…
The view of infinity as a metaphor, a basic premise of modern cognitive theory of embodied knowledge, suggests in particular that there may be alternative ways in which one could formalize mathematical ideas about infinity. We discuss the…
Based upon the axiom of choice it is proved that the cardinality of the rational numbers is not less than the cardinality of the irrational numbers. This contradicts a main result of transfinite set theory and shows that the axiom of choice…
We present a characterization of the completeness of the field of real numbers in the form of a \emph{collection of ten equivalent statements} borrowed from algebra, real analysis, general topology and non-standard analysis. We also discuss…
In this paper we present a new mathematical conception based on a new method for ordering the integers. The method relies on the assumption that negative numbers are beyond infinity, which goes back to Wallis and Euler. We also present a…
Recent Leibniz scholarship has sought to gauge which foundational framework provides the most successful account of the procedures of the Leibnizian calculus (LC). While many scholars (e.g., Ishiguro, Levey) opt for a default Weierstrassian…
Did Leibniz exploit infinitesimals and infinities `a la rigueur, or only as shorthand for quantified propositions that refer to ordinary Archimedean magnitudes? Chapter 5 in (Ishiguro 1990) is a defense of the latter position, which she…
Although the categorical arithmetic is not effectively axiomatizable, the belief that the incompleteness Theorems can be apply to it is fairly common. Furthermore, the so-called "essential" (or "inherent") semantic incompleteness of the…