The `Analyst' Controversy

In 1734, the philosopher George Berkeley published a pamphlet, The Analyst, which criticised the foundations of the analysis used in the works of Newton and others. Many mathematicians published pamphlets in response, including James Jurin, Jacob Walton and Benjamin Robins. However the interpretations of the methods of Newton presented in the works of Robins and Jurin, and the Analyst controversy accordingly developed into a dispute between these two, conducted in the pages of The Present State of the Republick of Letters.

A number of pamphlets and other writings relevant to the Analyst controversy are available here, including works of the following:-


Links:

David R. Wilkins
(dwilkins@maths.tcd.ie)
School of Mathematics
Trinity College, Dublin