Re: [HM] Reply to Julio Gonzalez Cabillon
David Reed (dreed@math.duke.edu)
Wed, 11 Nov 1998 22:49:47 -0500 (EST)
As a footnote to my last and just a comment on a small part of this
interesting reply . Euler's sork on infinite series often looks a lot
like modern discussions of asymptotic analysis. The question is often not
whether one applies "modern" standards or not to mathematics of the past.
In some respects, the
standards - even of rigor - in older mathematics are as high or higher
than those employed today. The question more often than not is
identifying in fact what the older mathematician was really talking about.
Later twists and turns in the development of mathematics can obscure as
well as clarify what a mathematician was trying to do. Consider how
long it took for Kummer's work on p-adic analysis of number fields
to be appreciated. Wasn't it Bacon
who warned us, that if we take the image of time as a river seriously, we
should remember that the bits that float downstream tend to be rotten...
David Reed