Abstract

The object of this article is the study of possibilities and tendencies arising from the use of symbolic language including signs, characters, and symbols in mathematics. Five aspects are discussed: compactness and simultaneity, problem‐solving and generalizations, heuristics and progress, mechanisms and calculations, formalism. This is done primarily by looking at three disciplines, which at the same time are of fundamental importance to theoretical physics: classical algebra, calculus, and vector analysis.Mathematical achievements and statements by eminent mathematicians from antiquity to the present (Archimedes, Leibniz, Newton, Euler, Gauß, Hilbert) show the importance of adequate symbolism for the development of mathematics. The corresponding philosophical discussions (Hobbes, Condillac, Degérando, Apelt, Cassirer, among others) are controversial.