On the History of Analysis -The Formation of Concepts

By : G. Sinkevich

Page No: 147-162

Abstract
Mathematical analysis was conceived in XVII century in the works of Newton and Leibniz. The issue of logical rigor in definitions was however first considered by Arnauld and Nicole in ‘’Logique ou l’art de penser’’. They were the first to distinguish between the bulk of the concept and its structure. They created a tradition which was strong in mathematics till XIX century, especially in France. The definitions were in binomial nomenclature mostly, but another type of definition appears in Cantor theory – it was the descriptive definition. As it used to be in humanities, first the object had only one characteristic, then as research continued it got enriched with new characteristics leading to a fledged concept. In this way mathematics acquired its own creativity. In 1915 Luzin laid down a new principle of the descriptive theory: a structural characteristic is done, the analytical form had to be found. New schools of descriptive set theory appeared in Moscow in the first half of the 20th century.