Exactness in Leibniz’s mathematics: instruments to construct transcendent al curves

0493326 - FLÚ 2019 RIV CH eng C - Conference Paper (international conference)
Crippa, Davide
Exactness in Leibniz’s mathematics: instruments to construct transcendent al curves.
Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach: Report No. 58/2017. Zürich: European Mathematical Society, 2017, s. 44-47. ISSN 1660-8933.
[Mathematical Instruments between Material Artifacts and Ideal Machines: Their Scientific and Social Role before 1950. Oberwolfach (DE), 17.12.2017-23.12.2017]
Institutional support: RVO:67985955
Keywords : geometrical constructions * motion * Leibniz * strings * transcendental curves
OECD category: Philosophy, History and Philosophy of science and technology

In this article, I shall survey Leibniz’s earliest attempts to construct curves beyond Descartes’ Geometry. Descartes’ demarcation between geometrical and mechanical curves, based primarily on a motion-criterion, is refused by Leibniz. In fact, against Descartes’ claim that mechanical curves are not geometrical because generated by two independent motions, Leibniz opposed the possibility of generating them by one motion only, using a flexible string.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0292447