Talk:The Analyst
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Berkeley's "ghosts of departed quantities" is usually interpreted as describing infinitesimals, his "evanescent quantities." It seems to me that the "ghosts" actually describe their "velocities" or ratios that remain after the quantities have vanished. The ratio dx/dt remains like the smile of the vanishing Cheshire cat when ∆x and ∆t have vanished. The "ghosts" are Newton's "ultimate ratios," the limits of those ratios that would not be rigorously defined until Weierstrass's δ-ε formulation. Alan R. Fisher (talk) 22:07, 6 January 2008 (UTC)
