The
transcendental law of homogeneity (
TLH) is a heuristic principle enunciated by
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz most clearly in a 1710 text entitled
Symbolismus memorabilis calculi algebraici et infinitesimalis in comparatione potentiarum et differentiarum, et de lege homogeneorum transcendentali (see Leibniz
Mathematische Schriften, (1863), edited by C. I. Gerhardt, volume V, pages 377–382).
Henk J. M. Bos describes it as the principle to the effect that in a sum involving
infinitesimals of different orders, only the lowest-order term must be retained, and the remainder discarded. Thus, if
is finite and
is infinitesimal, then one sets