Re: [HM] Mengenlehre, a disease from which one has recovered
AndrEs Eduardo Caicedo (acaicedo@math.berkeley.edu)
Sun, 6 Sep 1998 17:52:14 -0700 (PDT)
Joseph W. Dauben mentions the quote in his book "GEORG CANTOR. His
Mathematics and Philosophy of the Infinite". Specifically, in the
Introduction, page 1, says
"David Hilbert believed Cantor had created a new paradise for
mathematicians, though others, notably Henri Poincare, thought set theory
and Cantor's transfinite numbers represented a grave mathematical malady,
a perverse pathological illness that would one day be cured."
The reference given for Hilbert's and Poincare's opinions are,
respectively, Hilbert (1926), 170 and Poincare (1908), 182.
In the bibliography, Hilbert (1926) is NOT included, though. I assume
(I don't have with me my copy of Hilbert's works) it is from "On the
Infinite", which can be found in Benacerraf-Putnam "Philosophy of
Mathematics: Selected Readings" (1964).
Poincare (1908) is "L'Avenir des mathematiques", in "Atti del IV Congresso
Internazionale dei Matematici. Rome, 6-11 April", Rome: Tipografia della
R. Accademia dei Lincei, C.V. Salviucci, 1909, pgs. 167-182.
AndrEs Caicedo