Axiomatic Structure and the Method of Analysis: Shifting Styles in the History of Mathematics

This article surveys the different views of mathematical methodology that occurred from ancient Greek times through the early modern period up until its codification around 1900. After summarizing the axiomatic approach advocated by Aristotle and implemented in mathematics by Euclid, the talk explores the character of analysis in ancient Greek times, its development into a symbolic algebra by Viete and Descartes, and its expansion into a calculus of fluxions and differentials by Newton and Leibniz. The article concludes by touching on the recovery and transformation of the deductive ideal for mathematics by Pasch, Peano, and Hilbert during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries