Subject: Re: [HM] Was Cantor of Jewish descent? (was: Poetry and Mathematics)
From: JJJRLandau@aol.com
Date: Tue Dec 21 1999 - 09:43:28 EST
The _Jewish Encyclopedia_ (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1901 through 1905)
has articles on both Cantor and Kronecker.
About Kronecker (vol VII page 577 article by Frederick T. Haneman MD) it
reads: "[in 1861 he became] privat-docent at Berlin University, where he
became professor of mathematics in 1883, having embraced Christianity."
The article on Cantor (vol III pp 550-551 by Alexander S. Chessin) reads
"German mathematician, born at St. Petersburg, Russia, March 3, 1845. He
is distantly related to Moritz Cantor." and makes no further reference to
religious or family background. The article on Moritz Cantor (vol III pp
551-552 also by Chessin) reads "German historian of mathematics; born at
Mannheim, Germany, on Aug. 23, 1829. He comes of a family that emigrated to
Holland from Portugal, another branch of the same house having established
itself in Russia, the land of Georg Cantor's birth."
(Chessin's article on Moritz Cantor lists only one source: "Supplement to
vol. xliv. of the _Zeitschrift fu"r Mathematik und Physik_ entitled
_Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Mathematik_; edited by M. Curtze and S.
Gu"nther, and dedicated to Moritz Cantor on the seventieth anniversary of his
birthday, Aug. 23, 1899.")
The _New Catholic Encyclopedia_ (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967) vol III pp
70-71 article by T. A\ K Kloyda states "Cantor's father was a Jewish convert
to Protestantism; his mother was a Catholic. He entered the University of
Berlin in 1863 to study theoretical mathematics under E. Kummer, L.
Kronecker, and K. Weierstrass."
The _Encyclopedia of Philosophy_ (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co Inc. and
The Free Press, 1967) vol 2 pp 20-22: article by Abraham A. Fraenkel reads
"After 1884 Cantor produced few new original ideas. Some of his papers are
philosophical and partly polemical. His inclination to Platonic realism and
_his deep religious interests_ became conspicuous. Cantor even asked the
Prussian ministry of education to change his chair from mathematics to
philosophy." [emphasis mine. The article makes no further mention of
"religious interests"]
James A. Landau
Systems Engineer
FAA Technical Center (ACT-350/BCI)
Atlantic City Airport NJ 08405 USA
P.S. Cantor is not the only mathematician whose religious background is
difficult to establish. The Jewish Encyclopedia vol. VIII page 377 article
on Mathematics by S. Gundelfinger says: "As there are, moreover, no data
regarding the lives of the French, English, and Russian mathematicians the
biographer frequently would be obliged to resort to conjecture. For example,
it is believed that Lobatschewski, one of the discoverers of absolute
geometry (pangeometry), was the son of Jewish parents, since his father, a
native of Poland, is known to have been converted to the Orthodox Greek
Church, and conversion from Catholicism is not likely."
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