Oxford handbook of generality in mathematics and the sciences, The

This handbook examines how actors have valued generality in mathematics and the sciences and how they worked with specific types of 'general' entities, procedures, and arguments. Part I deals with the meaning and value of generality, and more specifically the value of generality in Michel Chasles's historiography of geometry and generality in Gottfried Leibniz's mathematics. Part II focuses on statements and concepts that make up the general, covering topics such as Henri Poincaré's work on the recurrence theorem and the role of genericity in the history of dynamical systems theory. Part III explores the practices of generality, including the dispute over tangents between René Descartes and Pierre de Fermat, generality in James Clerk Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism, and practices of generalization in mathematical physics, biology, and evolutionary strategies.