Subject: [HM] Was Cantor of Jewish descent? (was: Poetry and Mathematics)
From: Martin Davis (martin@eipye.com)
Date: Mon Dec 20 1999 - 13:55:44 EST
At 02:21 PM 12/20/99 +0000, Dr. Siegmund Probst wrote:
> On Fri, 17 Dec 1999 11:00:47 -0800 Martin Davis <martin@eipye.com> wrote:
>
>> 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.
>
> What is the basis of the statement about Cantor?
I take the liberty of quoting from my forthcoming book: "The Universal
Computer: The Road from Leibniz to Turing":
Cantor's having recourse to the Hebrew alphabet may well be the reason
for a rather widespread (and incorrect) assumption that he was a Jew.
As Cantor himself explained in a letter dated April 30, 1895 (my
translation), "it seemed to me that for this purpose, other alphabets
were [already] over-used."
Martin Davis
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