The philosophy of mathematics · Auguste Comte
ITS TWO FUNDAMENTAL DIVISIONS.
The _calculus of indirect functions_, in accordance with the considerations explained in the preceding chapter, is necessarily divided into two parts (or, more properly, is decomposed into two different _calculi_ entirely distinct, although intimately connected by their nature), according as it is proposed to find the relations between the auxiliary magnitudes (the introduction of which constitutes the general spirit of this calculus) by means of the relations between the corresponding primitive magnitudes; or, conversely, to try to discover these direct equations by means of the indirect equations originally established. Such is, in fact, constantly the double object of the transcendental analysis. These two systems have received different names, according to the point of view under which this analysis has been regarded. The infinitesimal method, properly so called, having been the most generally employed for the reasons which have been given, almost all geometers employ habitually the denominations of _Differential Calculus_ and of _Integral Calculus_, established by Leibnitz, and which are, in fact, very rational consequences of his conception. Newton, in accordance with his method, named the first the _Calculus of Fluxions_, and the second the _Calculus of Fluents_, expressions which were commonly employed in England. Finally, following the eminently philosophical theory founded by Lagrange, one would be called the _Calculus of Derived Functions_, and the other the _Calculus of Primitive Functions_. I will continue to make use of the terms of Leibnitz, as being more convenient for the formation of secondary expressions, although I ought, in accordance with the suggestions made in the preceding chapter, to employ concurrently all the different conceptions, approaching as nearly as possible to that of Lagrange.
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