ジョージ・ピーコック『代数学』序文について (数学史の研究)

Abstract

George Peacock was an English mathematician in the Victorian era. In his student days at Cambridge University, he joined the Analytical Society which his friends Charles Babbage and J. F. W. Herschel organized. The purpose of this Society was to introduce the continental mathematical signs to England. The most important work of Peacock is A Treatise on Algebra published in 1830 and 1842-45. In this work, he divided algebra into two, " Arithmetical Algebra " and "Symbolical Algebra ". The "Preface" of A Treatise on Algebra was very important, because Peacock claimed there were differences between Arithmetical Algebra and Symbolical Algebra. J. M. Dubbey discussed both Peacock' s " Preface " and Babbage' s unpublished manuscript "Essays on the Philosophy of Analysis ". His discussion is mostly correct, however he failed to point out their differences. Dubbey' s discussion doesn 't point out Peacock' s method of thinking about the development from Arithmetical Algebra to Symbolical Algebra.