> ... as we learn from Hans Lausch, whose posting shows the Weierstrass
> quote was written cheek by jowl with some anti-semitic remarks.
It may be worth remembering that Weierstrass had very good reasons for
finding Kronecker's mathematical notions objectionable, quite apart from
the all-too-fashionable (and ultimately disastrous) nonsense about Semitic
blood. Kronecker, from his lofty constructivist perch, denied the validity
of mathematical analysis, hence of most of Weierstrass's work.
E.T. Bell (one's favorite mathematical historian to beat up on) makes much
of Kronecker's Jewish ancestry (Kronecker was in fact a Christian) and
insists (apparently incorrectly) on Cantor's also being of Jewish descent
as an explanation for their disagreements.
Martin Davis
Visiting Scholar UC Berkeley
Professor Emeritus, NYU
martin@eipye.com
(Add 1 and get 0)
http://www.eipye.com