A Discourse concerning the Nature and Certainty of Sir Isaac Newton's Methods of Fluxions and of Prime and Ultimate Ratios,
by Benjamin Robins

Benjamin Robins responded to the criticisms of Isaac Newton's Method of Fluxions contained in George Berkeley's Analyst with a pamphlet entitled A Discourse concerning the Nature and Certainty of Sir Isaac Newton's Methods of Fluxions, and of Prime and Ultimate Ratios, published in 1735.

This Discourse is available here in a variety of formats (PDF and PostScript for viewing and printing, together with source in the form of input files for Plain TeX and METAPOST):

Robins's account of the foundations of Isaac Newton's methods differed in certain respects from that given by James Jurin (who wrote under the pseudonym of Philalethes Cantabrigiensis). This led to a lengthy controversy in the pages of The Present State of the Republick of Letters.


Links:

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