"Conceive of every curve as generated by a point affected by a motion varying according to any law whatever. The different quantities presented by the curve, the abscissa, the ordinate, the arc, the area, etc.,... regarded as simultaneously produced by successive degrees during this motion. The velocity with which each one will have been described will be called the fluxion of that quantity, which inversely would have been called its fluent. Henceforth, the transcendental analysis... forming directly the equations between the fluxions of the proposed quantities, to deduce from them afterwards, by a special Calculus, the equations between the fluents... any magnitudes... by the help of a suitable image... being produced by the motion of others."
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The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte
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