“It is absolutely certain that if a proposition is established by mathematical induction, it will never be disproved, i.e., if a general proposition is true of n + 1 whenever it is true of n, and also of 1, then no possible number can arise of which this proposition is not true, for the principle of mathematical induction is used in defining all finite integers. Whether, therefore, we agree with Russell and call the principle of mathematical induction a definition, or concede to Poincaré that it is a special axiom, a synthetic proposition a priori, the fact remains that reasoning from it is a purely deductive procedure.”
“Few contemporaries were as profoundly read in the history of mathematics as was De Morgan. No subject was too insignificant to receive his attention. ...In [his] article "Induction (Mathematics)," fir...”
Mathematical induction
“One who extended the theory of equations somewhat further than Vieta was Albert Girard... Like Vieta this ingenious author applied algebra to geometry, and was the first who understood the use of nega...”
Mathematical induction
“A more modern attempt to explain the fruitfulness of mathematical reasoning is that of Poincaré, who finds it all due to the principle of mathematical induction. This principle of mathematical inducti...”
Mathematical induction
“We can not... escape the conclusion that the rule of reasoning by recurrence is irreducible to the principle of contradiction. ...Neither can this rule come to us from experience... This rule, inacces...”
Mathematical induction
“But, one will say, if raw experience can not legitimatize reasoning by recurrence, is it so of experiment aided by induction? We see successively that a theorem is true of the number 1, of the number ...”
Mathematical induction