Berkeley and Newton

Extract

In his interesting article on Newton in the July Gazette Dr. Rouse Ball had space only for a slight reference to Newton’s views on what we should now call the Foundations of the Differential Calculus. The subject “ involves,” as Dr. Rouse Ball has remarked, “ some awkward questions of philosophy which before Weierstrass’s researches were usually slurred over.” Some of the logical difficulties incident to Newton’s method of approach were clearly seen and pointed out by a contemporary, the celebrated Bishop Berkeley, in a tract which drew much attention at the time, and was followed by a considerable controversy.