Heinrich Weber: Leopold Kronecker.
Jahresberichte D.M.V 2 (1893) 5-31
where Weber writes about Kronecker
Mancher von Ihnen wird sich des Ausspruchs erinnern, den er in
einem Vortrag bei der Berliner Naturforscher-Versammlung im
Jahre 1886 tat "Die ganzen Zahlen hat der liebe Gott gemacht,
alles andere ist Menschenwerk".
It is important not to omit in this dictum the adjective "liebe"
in "liebe Gott".
Because "lieber Gott" is a colloquial phrase usually used only
when speaking to children or illiterati. Adressing grownups with it
contains a taste of being unserious, if not descending (and not towards
the audience, but towards the object of substantive "Gott") ; no priest,
pastor, theologian or philosopher would use it when expressing himself
seriously. There is the well known joke of Helmut Hasse who, having
quoted Kronecker's dictum on page 1 of his yellow "Vorlesungen "uber
Zahlentheorie" 1950, added to the index of names at the book's end
under the letter "L" the entry "Lieber Gott ........ p.1 "
As Kronecker's dictum is related, it appears as nothing but a
witticism: "About the integers let us not ask, but all the rest
came about by men - namely so ... "
Would Kronecker have wanted to make a theologico-philosophical
statement, he would have omitted the Children's language: "Die
Zahlen kommen von Gott, der Rest ist menschliche Erfindung."
I doubt that Kronecker's dictum can be construed to express a
distinction between a Kroneckerian viewpoint of a divine, pre-human
origin of the integers, and Dedekind's viewpoint that also the
integers are man-made (i.e. man-invented) .
W.F.