The Rise of Rigor in the Calculus

Joel David Hamkins, Professor of Logic, Oxford University This lecture is based on chapter 2 of my book, Lectures on the Philosophy of Mathematics, published with MIT Press, Lecture 2. The Rise of Rigor in the Calculus Let us consider the problem of mathematical rigor in the development of the calculus. Informal continuity concepts and the use of infinitesimals ultimately gave way to the epsilon-delta limit concept, which secured a more rigorous foundation while also enlarging our conceptual vocabulary, enabling us to express more refined notions, such as uniform continuity, equicontinuity, and uniform convergence. Nonstandard analysis resurrected the infinitesimals on a more secure foundation, providing a parallel development of the subject. Meanwhile, increasing abstraction emerged in the function concept, which we shall illustrate with the Devil’s staircase, space-filling curves, and the Conway base 13 function. Finally, d