FOM: Leibniz and infinitesimals

[wtait@ix.netcom.com]

In describing Leibniz's attitude towards infinitesimals, David Ross is 
right that the term `dispensible'is misleading and should have been 
prefaced by `in principle'. 

However, Cantor seems to have been wrong in attributing the introduction 
of infinitesimals as something other than an instrument for computation 
(and perhaps discovery) to Thomae. It seems that the Bernoulli brothers 
accepted them as genuine objects. So my remark about support for 
infinitesimals was illconsidered.

Bill Tait