Abstract Functions

The following work intent to analyze the mode of existence of a few mathematical
theories. As a starting point, we would take the word theory the naive way, min
gled with some back thinking. We give ourselves the right to name theory and to
use, even objects which fundamental behavioral structure hasn't been properly ob
serve and defined. Cauchy couldn't catch the notion of uniform structure, but we
know the expression theory of convergence in Cauchy meaning. In the same way, E
uclid never defined neither group structure or the idea of body, but we give our
selves the right, for instance, to use the idiomatic Euclidean theory of proport
ions. Provisionally, we'll call theory an open system of compatible propositions
, naming and linking properties in a closed object domain related to some operat
ions or relations explicitly formulated. It is to say that the standard of compa
tibility remains, also here, a simple idealized presupposition regulated and ver
ified on every day base, in the merging of acts by which the mathematician choos
es among useful hypothesis. Our main field of investigation would be constituted
by the body of the doctrine designed under the name real variable function theo
ry. Several reasons guided us to that choice. Le first is the « antiquity » of t
he theory. Besides the facts that the Greek mathematicians did not define the ge
neral concept of function, they, nevertheless, considered operations where field
of validity was delimitated by objects equivalent of our body of real numbers (
negative numbers excluded, naturally). One, even, can say that real numbers usu
al topology, initial definition domain where are builded the real variable funct
ions, is already present, if not truly expliclted while Eudoxe conceive un gener
al theory of proportions including incommensurable magnitudes.( see the famous d
efinition 5 in Euclide's Elements, book V). Furthermore, if this theory allows t
he use of exhaustion méthod to solve squarring problems, we can bring back to Ar
chimedes, the real variable function theory birth certificate. From there, the c
oncept of definite integral is put in motion by the developpement of algebraïc g
eometry which found its roots, in the first place, in the domain of the reals. T
hese premises permitted calculus operations and computing ; integration, differe
nciation, serial developpement and also the continuity and convergence caracteri
stic concepts , for instance.. The second reason of our choice is linked on more
organic grounds, to the nature of the theory, to the rôle, it plays since the b
eginning of the XIX° century, in the analysis principles deepening et enlightmen
t. One knows since Gauchy (to fix a starting point) that a double generalisation
process has affected the functions theory. One consisted in spreading to the co
mplex variable field, operations already defined in the reals field. Unless this
extention was only used for polynoms or analytically individualised defined tra
nscendental fonctions such as Passage from the reals to the complexes have no ne
ed for more than the substitution of x, validity of computing rules defined by t
he body of complex numbers and their compatibility use to pass as a guarantee of
the extension operative possibilities. The well knowned Euler's theorem testifi
es of the operative integration of the real field to the complex field. Troubles
uprising when the problem extent to the field of the complex variables for arbi
trary functions. It is to say that for expressions of the form y=f(x), where we
leave f absolutely undetermined. f means that between x and y has been establish
ed some mode of correspondence. If at the variable x one substitute the variable
z=x+iy, by which conditions would it be possible to extend at f(z) the classic
operations of infinite calculus. Particularly, how to define the admissible cond
itions for each point of the function to bear a sole derivative. One know that t
hese problems inherited from Cauchy and Weierstrass, drove to insulate à "privil
eged" class of functions: analytic functions undefinitely derivatives in each of
the points of the domain where they are defined and representable by Taylor's d
evelopment of converging series. It's for this reason: the analytic character (a
nd not only for the single reason of formal calculating rules compatibility in t
he complex body). It just happened that the usual algebraic and transcendental f
unctions, by a simple substitution of variables, fitted to the complex field ext
ension. And so the endeavor to generalize came out as its converse: "generalizab
le" operations restricted to a limited class of functions. This bordering of pos
sibles demanded much attention to topological and metric properties in the analy
tic functions definition domain. This doesn't question analysis principles; well
at the opposite it meets in the field of analysis a safety domain: a canonical
area. It did not go that way for the second movement of generalization, Standard
s for development in mathematical physics.(partial derivative equation integrati
on « of the vibrating strings ») and the necessity to balance operations system
and object field drove the analysts of the beginning of the XIX° century( mainly
Gauss, Cauchy, Abel, Dirichlet) to as ask about the problem of extension to arb
itrary classes of functions of a real variable, operations usually practiced on
the eulerian continuum function : integration, derivation, representation by dev
elopment in trigonometric series. From Leibniz to Lagrange, indeed, (to catch th
e ideal) the practice of « computing » has deployed in a field whose objects wer
e reachable and operational under a norm proper to already constituted operation
s : it was well understood that the « reachable functions » should and could be
writable. The expression « y=f(x) » was only to name an undetermined class of an
alytical expressions (algébraïc or transcendental) defining the mode of correspo
ndence between the system of « values » of « x » and the system of « values » of
« y » Accessible functions were, at once, faced as « normal » functions : so to
say functions whose properties must have been dominable in a normed field of al
gebraic operations. It was, then, a idealized common place without which the the
ory of functions could not have constituted itself. The areas of the operational
field who were dominated the firsts ( class of the continuous derivable functio
ns) were thematic and posed as exemplary analysis domain.(cf. Hermite's late loa
th when he faced the continuous functions without derivative. « Woeful wound » d
id he say. But this predicate one' s standardized, restrains the practical analy
sis to continuous functions or to functions only admitting a finite amount of di
scontinuity points. Now, the ideal of arbitrary function use to implicate that b
y the expression y=f(x), one understand nothing but the operation f pure concept
where, to the objects system « x » correspond the objects system « f(x) ». No m
ore restrictions ( implicit or explicit) are imposed, to « x » neither to « f ».
At the instant where the needs of analysis technical (cf. The problem of comput
ing the trigonometric series coefficients, for instance) requires that we dispos
e of the pure concept of such a correspondence, one can say that the idealizing
presupposition formulated above, cease to behave on the permitted analytic field
, as a standard function. While Dirichlet pronounce the importance to, from now
on, « substitute computing for ideals »(1), he states the burst of already const
ituted operator norms. Generalization and extension analysis operations to more
and more general classes of functions, soon calls for a overview ab ovo regardin
g the validity conditions of these operations themselves freed from the domain w
here they were defined first. To take seriously the general character of the rel
ation y=f(x) was an all other thing than substitute the real variable « x » by t
he complex variable « z » and ask oneself at which conditions F(z) remains, for
instance, derivable at each point of its domain. The general relation y=f(x) cou
ld as well be replaced by the assembling of signs like ? = * (x) in which « * »
stands for any correspondence between the « x » and the « ? » the domain propert
ies undetermined field defined by the correspondence. To introduce determination
in such a domain, was to reverse, in analysis, the traditional follow-up gestur
es of mathematical invention. It was out of question to let one be guided par ea
sily dominable properties of a privileged class of functions. But, if we begin b
y the pure concept of functional correspondence, the problem was to precise the
hypothesis statable on this mode of correspondence and as second momentum, to ge
neralize it. In the double movement of specification and widening of hypothesis
system, was enclosed the validation domain of « classic » operations of computin
g. For instance, the extension of operation « integration » from Cauchy to Lebes
gue. From any function one can acknowledge the possibility to integrating it. Le
first specification consist to attribute a bounded amount of discontinuities to
an arbitrary function; the second one is more general. The discontinuity points
ensemble in infinite, in this case, one can integrate the function if the measu
re of this ensemble is null( that is to say that one can enclose its points in a
arbitrary short total length serie of intervals. The third one is even more gen
eral : any discontinuity points ensemble is infinite. For instance nothing impea
ch that in the neighborhood of each defined point, the function ll'be bearing a
innumerable amount of discontinuity points(2) An integrability condition demand
that this function is measurable in Lebesgue's meaning. This last condition can'
t afford by itself to bound and to close the integrable functions class. Daniell
defined still more general functions which mean functions, in the first place,
not measured in the abstract space in which they are builded. From this moment,
the object « integral » appears in all its generality : the linear function defi
ned on the elements of an abstract space.(3). As this development is going, a ne
w object has been put on the work bench, we had to be heedful, first, for a unde
termined starting point function, to the distribution mode of its possible point
s of discontinuity in the domain where it is defined. A points infinite ensemble
s analysis mean was needed for this purpose. So could be studied the incidences
of this ensembles properties on the analysis operations extension conditions of
such function (for ex.Integration). This brought us to isolate specific object,
That was not algebra operative field anymore, but the class, at a glance, indefi
nitely open of most general functions definition domains. The study of the funct
ions, as so, subordinate to the « space » ones on which are defined correspondin
g modes susceptible to permit their building. After the class study of discontin
ued functions,the study, for an arbitrary function and its representation condit
ions by developing it by converging Fourier's series, demanded a the constitutio
n of a analysis specific instrument able to dispatch the domains structures wher
e was defined the « variables ». The Cantorian creation before develop for itsel
f, was conceived as a tool. The theory of a « set of points » was originally des
tined to elaborate rigorously the criterions permitting to treat the most genera
l functions ( and then, in principle, discontinued). By neutralizing their set o
f discontinued points. One had to ask to following question : what's the amount
of the set own's structure being a impediment to the treatment of The function b
y the usual operations seen above(4). In which way such a structure authorize th
e adequate bends to maintain, the initial operation into its whole formal genera
lization ? It became necessary to isolate en try to think as a mathematical obje
ct ( that is to say a system accessible by a row of compatible and regulated ope
rations) « pure material », the undetermined cloth in what was defined the most
general functions By the nature of its domain, real variables functions theory p
roblems and methods found itself in the heart of the movement, which, since the
beginning of the XIX° century, induced the re-opening of the mathematical buildi
ng stand. Diving in the roots of its remotest past, in the elementary operations
and in the rich structures offered by the still naive ma thematic, it was the p
lace where gathered and merged purer and poorer structures necessary to the unde
rtaking of a rigorous mathematic. It was also the proofing bench where these str
uctures construction laws has been invested, actualized and verified. At a point
that today, with a, from now on, classical theory, a young mathematician could
not lean it without a minimal mental luggage. This toolbox do not contain anymor
e as in around 1850, calculation technics, but the abstract theory of sets, the
general topology principles and linear transformations theory elements. Hence, W
e'll say that if mathematics offers, in a pure case, ideal objects existence mod
e dimensions. The real variables functions theory offers, in a equally pure case
, all the mathematical idealizations existing mode dimensions : related to the o
rigine, significant opening on the theory archeology, building gestures linked r
egulated movement, abstract structures merging and investment. Pure material the
ory thematic. As much « moments » seen and asked to be thinked together in a con
stitutive movement of mathematical effectiveness Empiric history (Chronological
of discoveries written down in memoirs and manuals) is the raw material of our r
eflexions. No need to say, its not our goal to step into, even partial functions
theory historiography. The epidemiologist is in business, first, with his own s
cience but his trade is not to pursue it, day by day, in the details and sinuosi
ties of its features. The dated pieces are for him, an object of analysis. He pu
ts them back to work for his own account aiming to bring to light the constituti
onal process and the linking mode of specific concepts of the science he's busy
with. The problem asked to him, at the starting point of his search is then to k
now which pieces to chose and the moments to attach oneself. This choice can't b
e fully arbitrary neither totally regulated. It is not arbitrary because epistem
ology is a historical subject. He receive the science phenomenon in a given form
, in a timely perspective that he do not have the power to transform to his will
. He is either not rapturously determined : It would be needed, for this, at the
beginning, to apprehend a thorough vision of historical becoming essence and be
able to approach, it the constitutive relation of that essence, each off the be
coming moments. Now, by the fact he 's himself a subject of history, situated in
the timely skyline which envelop its object, the epidemiologist can't, on his f
irst steps, pretend to possess such law of essence.-, even if he believes in the
ideal possibility to reach it. We'll be wrong, anyway, to let ourselves intimid
ate by this apparent « impoverishment » It better serve us like a guide inasmuch
as it testifies on the science historic forthcoming phenomenon. We receive scie
nce from the outside as a product. We have to learn from the product itself to d
ecrypt and to read the follow-up of productive acts. We distinguish ourselves fr
om of empirical historicist in this : him ranges the product in its entice posit
ivity ; the product is there like a thing showing in time after other things. To
it time is minus or at least a lineal succession empty pattern waiting to be fu
lled. All gap worries him : he must fill it. From the moment, he feels he'll got
or judge by himself that he possess this timely fulfillment without a crack, he
find his rest in presence of concrete history itself. What's to understand afte
rward is not his business anymore. It goes an all other way for us. We tackle th
e product by its converse mediation, that mean we take seriously our situation o
f historical subject, accepting, in a same move, to exercise the rights and acce
pt the servitudes of it. Our right is of First Sight, our servitude the one of t
he last arrived. To hold together these two requirements is the duty and proper
difficulty for someone who tackles the phenomenon of cultural becoming with the
design, starting from nothing , to decrypt the meaning of his movement. « First
sight », he board the product there, already though and reflected, as what's ask
to be thinked. The object, (as such Riemann's memoir, for instance), is again p
rocessed as a learning act of a conscience who must move in it, as in a non refl
ected new domain, waiting, to be, to reach its cultural object status, to be see
n. While he perform this glance right, the historical subject, perceiving himsel
f as a philosopher and telling so, come along the problem where live the product
as a simple dimension of his reflex ion field. He can accost it in full freedom
as the field objects are reflectivity equivalents ; the same operation which pe
rmit the subject to relearn such or such Riemann's memoir, induce him to put bac
k on the bench such Archimedes treaty. From one to the other, the connection is
only to be found in the reflexive field. The one (the philosopher), enjoys here,
an ideal and rooted-up ubiquity. If he doesn't use that right, the object remai
ns ; for him, abolish and deaf. It would stay that way if the subject do not see
k for the product by the timely mediation, where he is himself situated. Time of
fered « conversely », showing itself in the instant called now. And the first si
ght inhabiting this instant is always the « last arrived » in history and in tim
e. The philosopher can't do anything else but exercise his reflex ion. But while
verifying, in the field where is discovered their correlation, thinkable as wel
l, the subject seemingly appears « time free », but he isn't ,he did not escape
time. On the contrary, assigned in tense, he must face it. He starts from his si
de, his side of the time where he see his reflexive field opening and organize i
n a perspective the meaning encounters that he discover little to little. It's i
mpossible to discard the common place saying Archimedes couldn't be readied befo
re the discovery of infinitesimal computing as it was after. It testifies of the
objects organization mode inside the reflexive field. To discover the meaning o
f the product is, for the historical subject, to let oneself guided to the chara
cteristic product by taking his departure in the timely horizon where he is assi
gned. In the. While doing the job, he must undo his own horizon, see the opening
of the announced reality, accept ot be guided par the demand, living each time,
in the core of so dissociated moments. Rupture the present face of reason. Dism
antle the mind perpetual today, is then, the initial task of the historical subj
ect who would understand the motion which brought him there, at the point from w
here is given to see the non dominated open contain of already done science. Tha
t's why it has been assert above that one could board the product by the mediati
on of its negative. Through the achieved form, the balance shape in which it sur
render itself, it testifies on its own underachievement, on the manner he missed
its own past. It's this testimony that one have to listen and translate. The «
impoverishment » signaled before, far from being an obstacle, prescribe then the
approach chaining. The first, should consist to learn, of the theory, our objec
t, to read its history. It always remains in our power to choose the moment of i
ts grown where we can move in. But whatever is this moment, it would always asse
rt itself as a balanced figure of this moment and that's the figure we should su
bmit to analysis. That is to say fragment and dissociate so it'll be possible to
epitomize the distinct timely horizons in which the so obtained elements propos
e themselves as the objects of a constituted mathematical business. From this pa
th open do not depend of us anymore, but of the object itself, of the connection
s which made possible its learning mode and eventually exacting more wealth. The
initial choice, always arbitrary, so front the ruled domain which, step by step
, guide it and standardize it. The duality of both, start and end, points is def
ine by the arbitrary functions. And our « one way ticket » the yet theory calls
for return : effective history in which, if the initial analyze has been correct
ly driven, one should a see the mapping of dissociated structures and the paced
implicated timely horizons connection. Here, we'll on our one way travel just fo
r a short journey. We leave(arbitrarily) from the theory in its present : offere
d to a maturity moment in the unity of its principles and the strict rigor of it
s methids. But in a present already far in off from our sight so we can retrospe
ctively see the arising of problems which arrival ask one more effort of refinem
ent and generalisation. Chronologicaly, this instant appeared in the years 1920-
1930. Finding its expression in some treaties, classics today : for instance : H
.Hahn, Theorie der reelle Funktionen(1921) ; Constantin Caratheodory, Vorlesunge
n über reelle Funktionen (2° ed.1927) ;E. W. Hobson, The theory of functions of
a real variable and the Theory of Fourier's series(t.I, 3° ed., 1927 ; t.II, 2°
ed., 1926 ;the 3° edition of tome I includes corrections ans additions to the 2°
edition of the tome II).Let us be guided, in our exam by the last of these trea
ties which open a wider field than the precedents ; il contains and systematize
the results of the whole movement which, from Cantor to Denjoy, contributed to t
he theory formation ans so offers us the organic wholesomeness which must be ana
lyzed. In this totality, we'll choose a few elements ; objects-ideals, objects-t
heories. We seek which conscience modalities offers it as as much usable and cha
ined idealizations, which mediation's delivers them in the core of an ever open
and nevertheless subsisting system. These steps constitutes the preliminaries ab
le to assign a common starting point to idealizations sciences epistemology and
to its history. To begin, we'll remain faithful to a certain amount of naive pre
suppositions, we assume the mathematical works city existence, a practically non
dominable ideal library, but bonded. We suppose that this order contains a clas
sified succession, in respect of their chronology. Ourselves are aware of this l
ibrary existence and we possess some keys to gain access to it. At least, in its
most recent parts, the tong of the contained books is understood. We bare the f
reedom to move, at our will, it them and to decrypt their « messages ». These «
messages » consisting in in formations that the library delivers on itself. When
we begin to use that freedom , we become to be the servants of the « library ».
We state that the books aren't mute on one and another. Inside the chronologica
l order (that we aren't untitled to abolish) we see meaning relations instituted
. In our « works city », we gaze at the constitution of « under-universe », orga
nic unities in which cores,some works ordinates along mutual expressions links.,
inside their own thinking and learning domain. Following the indications, each
time, presented by these back feeds, we, not only, climb back the « course » of
time. We see it breaking apart : appearing and dismantling these « under-univers
es » and we give ourself reversely, the show of a discontinued genesis. Finally,
in case while, in our free journey in the city, we'll find a unreadable area, w
e'll pose the hypothesis that, since the library isn't mute on itself, it must c
ontain, in some points, an access road to the meaning of the area. The use of ap
ology, do not have, here, any other goal, than confirm our manifesto : approach
the mathematic as a cultural phenomenon, as a business which essence is to be in
habited by the bonded universe of its self generated signs in a relation that on
e can not break the roundness. Learn to decrypt through the manifest meaning, of
fered by the underachieved net, with its always total and present connections wh
ich make the life a such a universe. Isn't the main task of the epidemiologist ?
And it does not matter, if, on his way, breaks the empirical and fragile pictur
e, that while beginning, he still kept, regarding the flow of things, of history
, of the subject and of time.

(1) Cité par L.Brunschvicg, Les Etapes de la Philosophie mathématique, p.339

(2) For instance in the rationals ensemble characteristic function (0,1)
(3) Of course the Daniell's method ( the use of step-fonctions produces a measur
e of the considered space. Cf. The note of S.Banach ( in the appending to the Sa
ks'work, Theory of integration, 1937, and also in Zaanen ( Introduction to the t
heory of integration, § 13 (1958), the initial ideal of this generalisation goes
back, perhaps to Frechet, on the integration of a extended functional to an abs
tract ensemble, see the bulletin of France's mathematical society, 43, 1915, p.2
49-267. Daniell's memoir date from 1917-1918.
(4) about this, the famous Hankel's memoir consacred to the discontinued functio
ns classification : Untersuchungen über die unenlich oft oscilirenden und unstet
igen functionen. (Math. Annalen, t. 30, 1882, writen in 1870