Georg Cantor

Georg Ferdinand Ludwig Philipp Cantor (/ˈkæntɔːr/

KAN-tor; German: [ˈɡeːɔʁk ˈfɛʁdinant ˈluːtvɪç ˈfiːlɪp Georg Cantor
ˈkantoːɐ̯ ]; 3 March [O.S. 19 February] 1845 – 6
January 1918[1]) was a mathematician who played a
pivotal role in the creation of set theory, which has
become a fundamental theory in mathematics. Cantor
established the importance of one-to-one
correspondence between the members of two sets,
defined infinite and well-ordered sets, and proved that
the real numbers are more numerous than the natural
numbers. Cantor's method of proof of this theorem
implies the existence of an infinity of infinities. He
defined the cardinal and ordinal numbers and their
arithmetic. Cantor's work is of great philosophical
interest, a fact he was well aware of.[2]

Originally, Cantor's theory of transfinite numbers was Cantor, c. 1910

regarded as counter-intuitive – even shocking. This Born Georg Ferdinand Ludwig Philipp
caused it to encounter resistance from mathematical Cantor
contemporaries such as Leopold Kronecker and Henri 3 March 1845
Poincaré[3] and later from Hermann Weyl and L. E. J. Saint Petersburg, Russian
Brouwer, while Ludwig Wittgenstein raised Empire
philosophical objections; see Controversy over
Died 6 January 1918 (aged 72)
Cantor's theory. Cantor, a devout Lutheran Christian,[4] Halle, Province of Saxony,
believed the theory had been communicated to him by German Empire
God.[5] Some Christian theologians (particularly neo-
Nationality German-Russian
Scholastics) saw Cantor's work as a challenge to the
uniqueness of the absolute infinity in the nature of Alma mater Swiss Federal Polytechnic
God[6] – on one occasion equating the theory of University of Berlin
transfinite numbers with pantheism[7] – a proposition University of Göttingen
that Cantor vigorously rejected. Not all theologians
Known for Set theory
were against Cantor's theory; prominent neo-scholastic
philosopher Constantin Gutberlet was in favor of it and Spouse Vally Guttmann ​(m. 1874)​
Cardinal Johann Baptist Franzelin accepted it as a Awards Sylvester Medal (1904)
valid theory (after Cantor made some important Scientific career
clarifications).[8] Fields Mathematics

The objections to Cantor's work were occasionally Institutions University of Halle

fierce: Leopold Kronecker's public opposition and Thesis De aequationibus secundi gradus
personal attacks included describing Cantor as a indeterminatis ([Link]
"scientific charlatan", a "renegade" and a "corrupter of [Link]/web/20150704015954/htt
youth".[9] Kronecker objected to Cantor's proofs that p://[Link]/ind
the algebraic numbers are countable, and that the [Link]?id=11&PPN=PPN237853
transcendental numbers are uncountable, results now 094&DMDID=DMDLOG_0008&L
included in a standard mathematics curriculum. =1) (1867)
Writing decades after Cantor's death, Wittgenstein Doctoral Ernst Kummer
lamented that mathematics is "ridden through and advisor
Karl Weierstrass
through with the pernicious idioms of set theory",
which he dismissed as "utter nonsense" that is Signature
"laughable" and "wrong".[10] Cantor's recurring bouts
of depression from 1884 to the end of his life have
been blamed on the hostile attitude of many of his
contemporaries,[11] though some have explained these episodes as probable manifestations of a bipolar
disorder.[12]

The harsh criticism has been matched by later accolades. In 1904, the Royal Society awarded Cantor its
Sylvester Medal, the highest honor it can confer for work in mathematics.[13] David Hilbert defended it
from its critics by declaring, "No one shall expel us from the paradise that Cantor has created."[14][15]

Biography

Youth and studies

Georg Cantor, born in 1845 in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire,
was brought up in that city until the age of eleven. The oldest of
six children, he was regarded as an outstanding violinist. His
grandfather Franz Böhm (1788–1846) (the violinist Joseph
Böhm's brother) was a well-known musician and soloist in a
Russian imperial orchestra.[16] Cantor's father had been a member
of the Saint Petersburg stock exchange; when he became ill, the
family moved to Germany in 1856, first to Wiesbaden, then to
Frankfurt, seeking milder winters than those of Saint Petersburg.
In 1860, Cantor graduated with distinction from the Realschule in
Darmstadt; his exceptional skills in mathematics, trigonometry in
particular, were noted. In August 1862, he then graduated from the
"Höhere Gewerbeschule Darmstadt", now the Technische
Universität Darmstadt.[17][18] In 1862 Cantor entered the Swiss
Federal Polytechnic in Zurich. After receiving a substantial
inheritance upon his father's death in June 1863,[19] Cantor
Cantor, around 1870 transferred to the University of Berlin, attending lectures by
Leopold Kronecker, Karl Weierstrass and Ernst Kummer. He spent
the summer of 1866 at the University of Göttingen, then and later a center for mathematical research.
Cantor was a good student, and he received his doctoral degree in 1867.[19][20]

Teacher and researcher

Cantor submitted his dissertation on number theory at the University of Berlin in 1867. After teaching
briefly in a Berlin girls' school, he took up a position at the University of Halle, where he spent his entire
career. He was awarded the requisite habilitation for his thesis, also on number theory, which he
presented in 1869 upon his appointment at Halle.[20][21]

In 1874, Cantor married Vally Guttmann. They had six children, the last (Rudolph) born in 1886. Cantor
was able to support a family despite his modest academic pay, thanks to his inheritance from his father.
During his honeymoon in the Harz mountains, Cantor spent much time in mathematical discussions with
Richard Dedekind, whom he had met at Interlaken in Switzerland two years earlier while on holiday.

Cantor was promoted to extraordinary professor in 1872 and made full professor in 1879.[20][19] To attain
the latter rank at the age of 34 was a notable accomplishment, but Cantor desired a chair at a more
prestigious university, in particular at Berlin, at that time the leading German university. However, his
work encountered too much opposition for that to be possible.[22] Kronecker, who headed mathematics at
Berlin until his death in 1891, became increasingly uncomfortable with the prospect of having Cantor as a
colleague,[23] perceiving him as a "corrupter of youth" for teaching his ideas to a younger generation of
mathematicians.[24] Worse yet, Kronecker, a well-established figure within the mathematical community
and Cantor's former professor, disagreed fundamentally with the thrust of Cantor's work ever since he had
intentionally delayed the publication of Cantor's first major publication in 1874.[20] Kronecker, now seen
as one of the founders of the constructive viewpoint in mathematics, disliked much of Cantor's set theory
because it asserted the existence of sets satisfying certain properties, without giving specific examples of
sets whose members did indeed satisfy those properties. Whenever Cantor applied for a post in Berlin, he
was declined, and the process usually involved Kronecker,[20] so Cantor came to believe that Kronecker's
stance would make it impossible for him ever to leave Halle.

In 1881, Cantor's Halle colleague Eduard Heine died. Halle accepted Cantor's suggestion that Heine's
vacant chair be offered to Dedekind, Heinrich M. Weber and Franz Mertens, in that order, but each
declined the chair after being offered it. Friedrich Wangerin was eventually appointed, but he was never
close to Cantor.

In 1882, the mathematical correspondence between Cantor and Dedekind came to an end, apparently as a
result of Dedekind's declining the chair at Halle.[25] Cantor also began another important correspondence,
with Gösta Mittag-Leffler in Sweden, and soon began to publish in Mittag-Leffler's journal Acta
Mathematica. But in 1885, Mittag-Leffler was concerned about the philosophical nature and new
terminology in a paper Cantor had submitted to Acta.[26] He asked Cantor to withdraw the paper from
Acta while it was in proof, writing that it was "... about one hundred years too soon." Cantor complied,
but then curtailed his relationship and correspondence with Mittag-Leffler, writing to a third party, "Had
Mittag-Leffler had his way, I should have to wait until the year 1984, which to me seemed too great a
demand! ... But of course I never want to know anything again about Acta Mathematica."[27]

Cantor suffered his first known bout of depression in May 1884.[19][28] Criticism of his work weighed on
his mind: every one of the fifty-two letters he wrote to Mittag-Leffler in 1884 mentioned Kronecker. A
passage from one of these letters is revealing of the damage to Cantor's self-confidence:
 ... I don't know when I shall return to the continuation of my scientific work. At the moment I
can do absolutely nothing with it, and limit myself to the most necessary duty of my lectures;
how much happier I would be to be scientifically active, if only I had the necessary mental
freshness.[29]

This crisis led him to apply to lecture on philosophy rather than on mathematics. He also began an intense
study of Elizabethan literature, thinking there might be evidence that Francis Bacon wrote the plays
attributed to William Shakespeare (see Shakespearean authorship question); this ultimately resulted in
two pamphlets, published in 1896 and 1897.[30]

Cantor recovered soon thereafter, and subsequently made further important contributions, including his
diagonal argument and theorem. However, he never again attained the high level of his remarkable papers
of 1874–84, even after Kronecker's death on 29 December 1891.[20] He eventually sought, and achieved,
a reconciliation with Kronecker. Nevertheless, the philosophical disagreements and difficulties dividing
them persisted.

In 1889, Cantor was instrumental in founding the German Mathematical Society,[20] and he chaired its
first meeting in Halle in 1891, where he first introduced his diagonal argument; his reputation was strong
enough, despite Kronecker's opposition to his work, to ensure he was elected as the first president of this
society. Setting aside the animosity Kronecker had displayed towards him, Cantor invited him to address
the meeting, but Kronecker was unable to do so because his wife was dying from injuries sustained in a
skiing accident at the time. Georg Cantor was also instrumental in the establishment of the first
International Congress of Mathematicians, which took place in Zürich, Switzerland, in 1897.[20]

Later years and death

After Cantor's 1884 hospitalization there is no record that he was in any sanatorium again until 1899.[28]
Soon after that second hospitalization, Cantor's youngest son Rudolph died suddenly on 16 December
(Cantor was delivering a lecture on his views on Baconian theory and William Shakespeare), and this
tragedy drained Cantor of much of his passion for mathematics.[31] Cantor was again hospitalized in
1903. One year later, he was outraged and agitated by a paper presented by Julius König at the Third
International Congress of Mathematicians. The paper attempted to prove that the basic tenets of
transfinite set theory were false. Since the paper had been read in front of his daughters and colleagues,
Cantor perceived himself as having been publicly humiliated.[32] Although Ernst Zermelo demonstrated
less than a day later that König's proof had failed, Cantor remained shaken, and momentarily questioning
God.[13] Cantor suffered from chronic depression for the rest of his life, for which he was excused from
teaching on several occasions and repeatedly confined to various sanatoria. The events of 1904 preceded
a series of hospitalizations at intervals of two or three years.[33] He did not abandon mathematics
completely, however, lecturing on the paradoxes of set theory (Burali-Forti paradox, Cantor's paradox,
and Russell's paradox) to a meeting of the Deutsche Mathematiker-Vereinigung in 1903, and attending the
International Congress of Mathematicians at Heidelberg in 1904.

In 1911, Cantor was one of the distinguished foreign scholars invited to the 500th anniversary of the
founding of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Cantor attended, hoping to meet Bertrand Russell,
whose newly published Principia Mathematica repeatedly cited Cantor's work, but the encounter did not
come about. The following year, St. Andrews awarded Cantor an honorary doctorate, but illness
precluded his receiving the degree in person.
Cantor retired in 1913, and lived in poverty and suffered from malnourishment during World War I.[34]
The public celebration of his 70th birthday was canceled because of the war. In June 1917, he entered a
sanatorium for the last time and continually wrote to his wife asking to be allowed to go home. Georg
Cantor had a fatal heart attack on 6 January 1918, in the sanatorium where he had spent the last year of
his life.[19]

Mathematical work
Cantor's work between 1874 and 1884 is the origin of set theory.[35] Prior to this work, the concept of a
set was a rather elementary one that had been used implicitly since the beginning of mathematics, dating
back to the ideas of Aristotle. No one had realized that set theory had any nontrivial content. Before
Cantor, there were only finite sets (which are easy to understand) and "the infinite" (which was
considered a topic for philosophical, rather than mathematical, discussion). By proving that there are
(infinitely) many possible sizes for infinite sets, Cantor established that set theory was not trivial, and it
needed to be studied. Set theory has come to play the role of a foundational theory in modern
mathematics, in the sense that it interprets propositions about mathematical objects (for example,
numbers and functions) from all the traditional areas of mathematics (such as algebra, analysis, and
topology) in a single theory, and provides a standard set of axioms to prove or disprove them. The basic
concepts of set theory are now used throughout mathematics.[36]

In one of his earliest papers,[37] Cantor proved that the set of real numbers is "more numerous" than the
set of natural numbers; this showed, for the first time, that there exist infinite sets of different sizes. He
was also the first to appreciate the importance of one-to-one correspondences (hereinafter denoted "1-to-1
correspondence") in set theory. He used this concept to define finite and infinite sets, subdividing the
latter into denumerable (or countably infinite) sets and nondenumerable sets (uncountably infinite
sets).[38]

Cantor developed important concepts in topology and their relation to cardinality. For example, he
showed that the Cantor set, discovered by Henry John Stephen Smith in 1875,[39] is nowhere dense, but
has the same cardinality as the set of all real numbers, whereas the rationals are everywhere dense, but
countable. He also showed that all countable dense linear orders without end points are order-isomorphic
to the rational numbers.

Cantor introduced fundamental constructions in set theory, such as the power set of a set A, which is the
set of all possible subsets of A. He later proved that the size of the power set of A is strictly larger than the
size of A, even when A is an infinite set; this result soon became known as Cantor's theorem. Cantor
developed an entire theory and arithmetic of infinite sets, called cardinals and ordinals, which extended
the arithmetic of the natural numbers. His notation for the cardinal numbers was the Hebrew letter (ℵ,
aleph) with a natural number subscript; for the ordinals he employed the Greek letter (ω, omega). This
notation is still in use today.

The Continuum hypothesis, introduced by Cantor, was presented by David Hilbert as the first of his
twenty-three open problems in his address at the 1900 International Congress of Mathematicians in Paris.
Cantor's work also attracted favorable notice beyond Hilbert's celebrated encomium.[15] The US
philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce praised Cantor's set theory and, following public lectures delivered
by Cantor at the first International Congress of Mathematicians, held in Zürich in 1897, Adolf Hurwitz
and Jacques Hadamard also both expressed their admiration. At that Congress, Cantor renewed his
friendship and correspondence with Dedekind. From 1905, Cantor corresponded with his British admirer
and translator Philip Jourdain on the history of set theory and on Cantor's religious ideas. This was later
published, as were several of his expository works.

Number theory, trigonometric series and ordinals

Cantor's first ten papers were on number theory, his thesis topic. At the suggestion of Eduard Heine, the
Professor at Halle, Cantor turned to analysis. Heine proposed that Cantor solve an open problem that had
eluded Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet, Rudolf Lipschitz, Bernhard Riemann, and Heine himself: the
uniqueness of the representation of a function by trigonometric series. Cantor solved this problem in
1869. It was while working on this problem that he discovered transfinite ordinals, which occurred as
indices n in the nth derived set Sn of a set S of zeros of a trigonometric series. Given a trigonometric
series f(x) with S as its set of zeros, Cantor had discovered a procedure that produced another
trigonometric series that had S1 as its set of zeros, where S1 is the set of limit points of S. If Sk+1 is the set
of limit points of Sk, then he could construct a trigonometric series whose zeros are Sk+1. Because the sets
Sk were closed, they contained their limit points, and the intersection of the infinite decreasing sequence
of sets S, S1, S2, S3,... formed a limit set, which we would now call Sω, and then he noticed that Sω would
also have to have a set of limit points Sω+1, and so on. He had examples that went on forever, and so here
was a naturally occurring infinite sequence of infinite numbers ω, ω + 1, ω + 2, ...[40]

Between 1870 and 1872, Cantor published more papers on trigonometric series, and also a paper defining
irrational numbers as convergent sequences of rational numbers. Dedekind, whom Cantor befriended in
1872, cited this paper later that year, in the paper where he first set out his celebrated definition of real
numbers by Dedekind cuts. While extending the notion of number by means of his revolutionary concept
of infinite cardinality, Cantor was paradoxically opposed to theories of infinitesimals of his
contemporaries Otto Stolz and Paul du Bois-Reymond, describing them as both "an abomination" and "a
cholera bacillus of mathematics".[41] Cantor also published an erroneous "proof" of the inconsistency of
infinitesimals.[42]

Set theory
The beginning of set theory as a branch of mathematics is often marked by the publication of Cantor's
1874 paper,[35] "Ueber eine Eigenschaft des Inbegriffes aller reellen algebraischen Zahlen" ("On a
Property of the Collection of All Real Algebraic Numbers").[44] This paper was the first to provide a
rigorous proof that there was more than one kind of infinity. Previously, all infinite collections had been
implicitly assumed to be equinumerous (that is, of "the same size" or having the same number of
elements).[45] Cantor proved that the collection of real numbers and the collection of positive integers are
not equinumerous. In other words, the real numbers are not countable. His proof differs from the diagonal
argument that he gave in 1891.[46] Cantor's article also contains a new method of constructing
transcendental numbers. Transcendental numbers were first constructed by Joseph Liouville in 1844.[47]

Cantor established these results using two constructions. His first construction shows how to write the
real algebraic numbers[48] as a sequence a1, a2, a3, .... In other words, the real algebraic numbers are
countable. Cantor starts his second construction with any sequence of real numbers. Using this sequence,
he constructs nested intervals whose intersection contains a real number not in the sequence. Since every
sequence of real numbers can be used to construct a real not in the sequence, the real numbers cannot be
written as a sequence – that is, the real numbers are not countable. By applying his construction to the
sequence of real algebraic numbers, Cantor produces a
transcendental number. Cantor points out that his
constructions prove more – namely, they provide a new proof
of Liouville's theorem: Every interval contains infinitely
many transcendental numbers.[49] Cantor's next article
contains a construction that proves the set of transcendental
numbers has the same "power" (see below) as the set of real
numbers.[50]

Between 1879 and 1884, Cantor published a series of six

articles in Mathematische Annalen that together formed an
introduction to his set theory. At the same time, there was
growing opposition to Cantor's ideas, led by Leopold
An illustration of Cantor's diagonal
Kronecker, who admitted mathematical concepts only if they argument for the existence of
could be constructed in a finite number of steps from the uncountable sets.[43] The sequence at
natural numbers, which he took as intuitively given. For the bottom cannot occur anywhere in the
Kronecker, Cantor's hierarchy of infinities was inadmissible, infinite list of sequences above.
since accepting the concept of actual infinity would open the
door to paradoxes which would challenge the validity of
mathematics as a whole.[51] Cantor also introduced the Cantor set during this period.

The fifth paper in this series, "Grundlagen einer allgemeinen Mannigfaltigkeitslehre" ("Foundations of
a General Theory of Aggregates"), published in 1883,[52] was the most important of the six and was also
published as a separate monograph. It contained Cantor's reply to his critics and showed how the
transfinite numbers were a systematic extension of the natural numbers. It begins by defining well-
ordered sets. Ordinal numbers are then introduced as the order types of well-ordered sets. Cantor then
defines the addition and multiplication of the cardinal and ordinal numbers. In 1885, Cantor extended his
theory of order types so that the ordinal numbers simply became a special case of order types.

In 1891, he published a paper containing his elegant "diagonal argument" for the existence of an
uncountable set. He applied the same idea to prove Cantor's theorem: the cardinality of the power set of a
set A is strictly larger than the cardinality of A. This established the richness of the hierarchy of infinite
sets, and of the cardinal and ordinal arithmetic that Cantor had defined. His argument is fundamental in
the solution of the Halting problem and the proof of Gödel's first incompleteness theorem. Cantor wrote
on the Goldbach conjecture in 1894.

In 1895 and 1897, Cantor published a two-part paper in

Mathematische Annalen under Felix Klein's editorship; these were
his last significant papers on set theory.[53] The first paper begins
by defining set, subset, etc., in ways that would be largely
acceptable now. The cardinal and ordinal arithmetic are reviewed.
Cantor wanted the second paper to include a proof of the Passage of Georg Cantor's article
continuum hypothesis, but had to settle for expositing his theory with his set definition
of well-ordered sets and ordinal numbers. Cantor attempts to
prove that if A and B are sets with A equivalent to a subset of B
and B equivalent to a subset of A, then A and B are equivalent. Ernst Schröder had stated this theorem a
bit earlier, but his proof, as well as Cantor's, was flawed. Felix Bernstein supplied a correct proof in his
1898 PhD thesis; hence the name Cantor–Bernstein–Schröder theorem.

One-to-one correspondence
Cantor's 1874 Crelle paper was the first to invoke the notion of a
1-to-1 correspondence, though he did not use that phrase. He then
began looking for a 1-to-1 correspondence between the points of
the unit square and the points of a unit line segment. In an 1877
letter to Richard Dedekind, Cantor proved a far stronger result: for
any positive integer n, there exists a 1-to-1 correspondence
between the points on the unit line segment and all of the points in
an n-dimensional space. About this discovery Cantor wrote to
Dedekind: "Je le vois, mais je ne le crois pas!" ("I see it, but I
don't believe it!")[54] The result that he found so astonishing has
implications for geometry and the notion of dimension.
A bijective function
In 1878, Cantor submitted another paper to Crelle's Journal, in
which he defined precisely the concept of a 1-to-1 correspondence
and introduced the notion of "power" (a term he took from Jakob Steiner) or "equivalence" of sets: two
sets are equivalent (have the same power) if there exists a 1-to-1 correspondence between them. Cantor
defined countable sets (or denumerable sets) as sets which can be put into a 1-to-1 correspondence with
the natural numbers, and proved that the rational numbers are denumerable. He also proved that n-
dimensional Euclidean space Rn has the same power as the real numbers R, as does a countably infinite
product of copies of R. While he made free use of countability as a concept, he did not write the word
"countable" until 1883. Cantor also discussed his thinking about dimension, stressing that his mapping
between the unit interval and the unit square was not a continuous one.

This paper displeased Kronecker and Cantor wanted to withdraw it; however, Dedekind persuaded him
not to do so and Karl Weierstrass supported its publication.[55] Nevertheless, Cantor never again
submitted anything to Crelle.

Continuum hypothesis
Cantor was the first to formulate what later came to be known as the continuum hypothesis or CH: there
exists no set whose power is greater than that of the naturals and less than that of the reals (or
equivalently, the cardinality of the reals is exactly aleph-one, rather than just at least aleph-one). Cantor
believed the continuum hypothesis to be true and tried for many years to prove it, in vain. His inability to
prove the continuum hypothesis caused him considerable anxiety.[11]

The difficulty Cantor had in proving the continuum hypothesis has been underscored by later
developments in the field of mathematics: a 1940 result by Kurt Gödel and a 1963 one by Paul Cohen
together imply that the continuum hypothesis can be neither proved nor disproved using standard
Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory plus the axiom of choice (the combination referred to as "ZFC").[56]

Absolute infinite, well-ordering theorem, and paradoxes

In 1883, Cantor divided the infinite into the transfinite and the absolute.[57]

The transfinite is increasable in magnitude, while the absolute is unincreasable. For example, an ordinal α
is transfinite because it can be increased to α + 1. On the other hand, the ordinals form an absolutely
infinite sequence that cannot be increased in magnitude because there are no larger ordinals to add to
it.[58] In 1883, Cantor also introduced the well-ordering principle "every set can be well-ordered" and
stated that it is a "law of thought".[59]

Cantor extended his work on the absolute infinite by using it in a proof. Around 1895, he began to regard
his well-ordering principle as a theorem and attempted to prove it. In 1899, he sent Dedekind a proof of
the equivalent aleph theorem: the cardinality of every infinite set is an aleph.[60] First, he defined two
types of multiplicities: consistent multiplicities (sets) and inconsistent multiplicities (absolutely infinite
multiplicities). Next he assumed that the ordinals form a set, proved that this leads to a contradiction, and
concluded that the ordinals form an inconsistent multiplicity. He used this inconsistent multiplicity to
prove the aleph theorem.[61] In 1932, Zermelo criticized the construction in Cantor's proof.[62]

Cantor avoided paradoxes by recognizing that there are two types of multiplicities. In his set theory, when
it is assumed that the ordinals form a set, the resulting contradiction implies only that the ordinals form an
inconsistent multiplicity. In contrast, Bertrand Russell treated all collections as sets, which leads to
paradoxes. In Russell's set theory, the ordinals form a set, so the resulting contradiction implies that the
theory is inconsistent. From 1901 to 1903, Russell discovered three paradoxes implying that his set
theory is inconsistent: the Burali-Forti paradox (which was just mentioned), Cantor's paradox, and
Russell's paradox.[63] Russell named paradoxes after Cesare Burali-Forti and Cantor even though neither
of them believed that they had found paradoxes.[64]

In 1908, Zermelo published his axiom system for set theory. He had two motivations for developing the
axiom system: eliminating the paradoxes and securing his proof of the well-ordering theorem.[65]
Zermelo had proved this theorem in 1904 using the axiom of choice, but his proof was criticized for a
variety of reasons.[66] His response to the criticism included his axiom system and a new proof of the
well-ordering theorem. His axioms support this new proof, and they eliminate the paradoxes by
restricting the formation of sets.[67]

In 1923, John von Neumann developed an axiom system that eliminates the paradoxes by using an
approach similar to Cantor's—namely, by identifying collections that are not sets and treating them
differently. Von Neumann stated that a class is too big to be a set if it can be put into one-to-one
correspondence with the class of all sets. He defined a set as a class that is a member of some class and
stated the axiom: A class is not a set if and only if there is a one-to-one correspondence between it and the
class of all sets. This axiom implies that these big classes are not sets, which eliminates the paradoxes
since they cannot be members of any class.[68] Von Neumann also used his axiom to prove the well-
ordering theorem: Like Cantor, he assumed that the ordinals form a set. The resulting contradiction
implies that the class of all ordinals is not a set. Then his axiom provides a one-to-one correspondence
between this class and the class of all sets. This correspondence well-orders the class of all sets, which
implies the well-ordering theorem.[69] In 1930, Zermelo defined models of set theory that satisfy von
Neumann's axiom.[70]

Philosophy, religion, literature and Cantor's mathematics

The concept of the existence of an actual infinity was an important shared concern within the realms of
mathematics, philosophy and religion. Preserving the orthodoxy of the relationship between God and
mathematics, although not in the same form as held by his critics, was long a concern of Cantor's.[71] He
directly addressed this intersection between these disciplines in the introduction to his Grundlagen einer
allgemeinen Mannigfaltigkeitslehre, where he stressed the connection between his view of the infinite
and the philosophical one.[72] To Cantor, his mathematical views were intrinsically linked to their
philosophical and theological implications – he identified the absolute infinite with God,[73] and he
considered his work on transfinite numbers to have been directly communicated to him by God, who had
chosen Cantor to reveal them to the world.[5] He was a devout Lutheran whose explicit Christian beliefs
shaped his philosophy of science.[74] Joseph Dauben has traced the effect Cantor's Christian convictions
had on the development of transfinite set theory.[75][76]

Debate among mathematicians grew out of opposing views in the philosophy of mathematics regarding
the nature of actual infinity. Some held to the view that infinity was an abstraction which was not
mathematically legitimate, and denied its existence.[77] Mathematicians from three major schools of
thought (constructivism and its two offshoots, intuitionism and finitism) opposed Cantor's theories in this
matter. For constructivists such as Kronecker, this rejection of actual infinity stems from fundamental
disagreement with the idea that nonconstructive proofs such as Cantor's diagonal argument are sufficient
proof that something exists, holding instead that constructive proofs are required. Intuitionism also rejects
the idea that actual infinity is an expression of any sort of reality, but arrive at the decision via a different
route than constructivism. Firstly, Cantor's argument rests on logic to prove the existence of transfinite
numbers as an actual mathematical entity, whereas intuitionists hold that mathematical entities cannot be
reduced to logical propositions, originating instead in the intuitions of the mind.[78] Secondly, the notion
of infinity as an expression of reality is itself disallowed in intuitionism, since the human mind cannot
intuitively construct an infinite set.[79] Mathematicians such as L. E. J. Brouwer and especially Henri
Poincaré adopted an intuitionist stance against Cantor's work. Finally, Wittgenstein's attacks were finitist:
he believed that Cantor's diagonal argument conflated the intension of a set of cardinal or real numbers
with its extension, thus conflating the concept of rules for generating a set with an actual set.[10]

Some Christian theologians saw Cantor's work as a challenge to the uniqueness of the absolute infinity in
the nature of God.[6] In particular, neo-Thomist thinkers saw the existence of an actual infinity that
consisted of something other than God as jeopardizing "God's exclusive claim to supreme infinity".[80]
Cantor strongly believed that this view was a misinterpretation of infinity, and was convinced that set
theory could help correct this mistake:[81] "... the transfinite species are just as much at the disposal of the
intentions of the Creator and His absolute boundless will as are the finite numbers.".[82] Prominent neo-
scholastic German philosopher Constantin Gutberlet was in favor of such theory, holding that it didn't
oppose the nature of God.[8]

Cantor also believed that his theory of transfinite numbers ran counter to both materialism and
determinism – and was shocked when he realized that he was the only faculty member at Halle who did
not hold to deterministic philosophical beliefs.[83]

It was important to Cantor that his philosophy provided an "organic explanation" of nature, and in his
1883 Grundlagen, he said that such an explanation could only come about by drawing on the resources of
the philosophy of Spinoza and Leibniz.[84] In making these claims, Cantor may have been influenced by
F. A. Trendelenburg, whose lecture courses he attended at Berlin, and in turn Cantor produced a Latin
commentary on Book 1 of Spinoza's Ethica. Trendelenburg was also the examiner of Cantor's
Habilitationsschrift.[85][86]

In 1888, Cantor published his correspondence with several philosophers on the philosophical implications
of his set theory. In an extensive attempt to persuade other Christian thinkers and authorities to adopt his
views, Cantor had corresponded with Christian philosophers such as Tilman Pesch and Joseph
Hontheim,[87] as well as theologians such as Cardinal Johann Baptist Franzelin, who once replied by
equating the theory of transfinite numbers with pantheism.[7] Although later this Cardinal accepted the
theory as valid, due to some clarifications from Cantor's.[8] Cantor even sent one letter directly to Pope
Leo XIII himself, and addressed several pamphlets to him.[81]

Cantor's philosophy on the nature of numbers led him to affirm a belief in the freedom of mathematics to
posit and prove concepts apart from the realm of physical phenomena, as expressions within an internal
reality. The only restrictions on this metaphysical system are that all mathematical concepts must be
devoid of internal contradiction, and that they follow from existing definitions, axioms, and theorems.
This belief is summarized in his assertion that "the essence of mathematics is its freedom."[88] These
ideas parallel those of Edmund Husserl, whom Cantor had met in Halle.[89]

Meanwhile, Cantor himself was fiercely opposed to infinitesimals, describing them as both an
"abomination" and "the cholera bacillus of mathematics".[41]

Cantor's 1883 paper reveals that he was well aware of the opposition his ideas were encountering: "... I
realize that in this undertaking I place myself in a certain opposition to views widely held concerning the
mathematical infinite and to opinions frequently defended on the nature of numbers."[90]

Hence he devotes much space to justifying his earlier work, asserting that mathematical concepts may be
freely introduced as long as they are free of contradiction and defined in terms of previously accepted
concepts. He also cites Aristotle, René Descartes, George Berkeley, Gottfried Leibniz, and Bernard
Bolzano on infinity. Instead, he always strongly rejected Immanuel Kant's philosophy, in the realms of
both the philosophy of mathematics and metaphysics. He shared B. Russell's motto "Kant or Cantor", and
defined Kant "yonder sophistical Philistine who knew so little mathematics."[91]

Cantor's ancestry
Cantor's paternal grandparents were from Copenhagen and fled to Russia from the disruption of the
Napoleonic Wars. There is very little direct information on them.[92] Cantor's father, Georg Waldemar
Cantor, was educated in the Lutheran mission in Saint Petersburg, and his correspondence with his son
shows both of them as devout Lutherans. Very little is known for sure about Georg Waldemar's origin or
education.[93] Cantor's mother, Maria Anna Böhm, was an Austro-Hungarian born in Saint Petersburg and
baptized Roman Catholic; she converted to Protestantism upon marriage. However, there is a letter from
Cantor's brother Louis to their mother, stating:

Mögen wir zehnmal von Juden abstammen und ich im Princip noch so sehr für
Gleichberechtigung der Hebräer sein, im socialen Leben sind mir Christen lieber ...[93]
("Even if we were descended from Jews ten times over, and even
though I may be, in principle, completely in favour of equal rights
for Hebrews, in social life I prefer Christians...") which could be
read to imply that she was of Jewish ancestry.[94]

According to biographer Eric Temple Bell, Cantor was of Jewish

descent, although both parents were baptized.[95] In a 1971 article
entitled "Towards a Biography of Georg Cantor", the British
historian of mathematics Ivor Grattan-Guinness mentions (Annals
of Science 27, pp. 345–391, 1971) that he was unable to find
evidence of Jewish ancestry. (He also states that Cantor's wife,
Vally Guttmann, was Jewish).
The title on the memorial plaque (in
In a letter written to Paul Tannery in 1896 (Paul Tannery, Russian): "In this building was born
Memoires Scientifique 13 Correspondence, Gauthier-Villars, and lived from 1845 till 1854 the
Paris, 1934, p. 306), Cantor states that his paternal grandparents great mathematician and creator of
were members of the Sephardic Jewish community of set theory Georg Cantor",
Vasilievsky Island, Saint-Petersburg.
Copenhagen. Specifically, Cantor states in describing his father:
"Er ist aber in Kopenhagen geboren, von israelitischen Eltern, die
der dortigen portugisischen Judengemeinde...." ("He was born in Copenhagen of Jewish (lit: 'Israelite')
parents from the local Portuguese-Jewish community.")[96] In addition, Cantor's maternal great uncle,[97]
Josef Böhm, a Hungarian violinist, has been described as Jewish,[98] which may imply that Cantor's
mother was at least partly descended from the Hungarian Jewish community.[99]

In a letter to Bertrand Russell, Cantor described his ancestry and self-perception as follows:

Neither my father nor my mother were of German blood, the first being a Dane, borne in
Kopenhagen, my mother of Austrian Hungar descension. You must know, Sir, that I am not a
regular just Germain, for I am born 3 March 1845 at Saint Peterborough, Capital of Russia, but
I went with my father and mother and brothers and sister, eleven years old in the year 1856,
into Germany.[100]

There were documented statements, during the 1930s, that called this Jewish ancestry into question:

More often [i.e., than the ancestry of the mother] the question has been discussed of whether
Georg Cantor was of Jewish origin. About this it is reported in a notice of the Danish
genealogical Institute in Copenhagen from the year 1937 concerning his father: "It is hereby
testified that Georg Woldemar Cantor, born 1809 or 1814, is not present in the registers of the
Jewish community, and that he completely without doubt was not a Jew ..."[93]

Biographies
Until the 1970s, the chief academic publications on Cantor were two short monographs by Arthur Moritz
Schönflies (1927) – largely the correspondence with Mittag-Leffler – and Fraenkel (1930). Both were at
second and third hand; neither had much on his personal life. The gap was largely filled by Eric Temple
Bell's Men of Mathematics (1937), which one of Cantor's modern biographers describes as "perhaps the
most widely read modern book on the history of mathematics"; and as "one of the worst".[101] Bell
presents Cantor's relationship with his father as Oedipal, Cantor's differences with Kronecker as a quarrel
between two Jews, and Cantor's madness as Romantic despair over his failure to win acceptance for his
mathematics. Grattan-Guinness (1971) found that none of these claims were true, but they may be found
in many books of the intervening period, owing to the absence of any other narrative. There are other
legends, independent of Bell – including one that labels Cantor's father a foundling, shipped to Saint
Petersburg by unknown parents.[102] A critique of Bell's book is contained in Joseph Dauben's
biography.[103] Writes Dauben:

Cantor devoted some of his most vituperative correspondence, as well as a portion of the
Beiträge, to attacking what he described at one point as the 'infinitesimal Cholera bacillus of
mathematics', which had spread from Germany through the work of Thomae, du Bois Reymond
and Stolz, to infect Italian mathematics ... Any acceptance of infinitesimals necessarily meant
that his own theory of number was incomplete. Thus to accept the work of Thomae, du Bois-
Reymond, Stolz and Veronese was to deny the perfection of Cantor's own creation.
Understandably, Cantor launched a thorough campaign to discredit Veronese's work in every
way possible.[104]

See also

Biography portal

Philosophy portal

Mathematics portal

Absolute infinite
Aleph number
Cardinality of the continuum
Cantor medal – award by the Deutsche Mathematiker-Vereinigung in honor of Georg Cantor
Cardinal number
Continuum hypothesis
Countable set
Derived set (mathematics)
Epsilon numbers (mathematics)
Factorial number system
Pairing function
Transfinite number
List of things named after Georg Cantor

Notes
1. Grattan-Guinness 2000, p. 351.
 2. The biographical material in this article is mostly drawn from Dauben 1979. Grattan-
Guinness 1971, and Purkert and Ilgauds 1985 are useful additional sources.
3. Dauben 2004, p. 1.
4. Dauben, Joseph Warren (1979). Georg Cantor His Mathematics and Philosophy of the
Infinite ([Link] Princeton University Press.
pp. introduction. ISBN 9780691024479.
5. Dauben 2004, pp. 8, 11, 12–13.
6. Dauben 1977, p. 86; Dauben 1979, pp. 120, 143.
7. Dauben 1977, p. 102.
8. Dauben 1979, chpt. 6.
9. Dauben 2004, p. 1; Dauben 1977, p. 89 15n.
10. Rodych 2007.
11. Dauben 1979, p. 280: "... the tradition made popular by Arthur Moritz Schönflies blamed
Kronecker's persistent criticism and Cantor's inability to confirm his continuum hypothesis"
for Cantor's recurring bouts of depression.
12. Dauben 2004, p. 1. Text includes a 1964 quote from psychiatrist Karl Pollitt, one of Cantor's
examining physicians at Halle Nervenklinik, referring to Cantor's mental illness as "cyclic
manic-depression".
13. Dauben 1979, p. 248.
14. Hilbert (1926, p. 170): "Aus dem Paradies, das Cantor uns geschaffen, soll uns niemand
vertreiben können." (Literally: "Out of the Paradise that Cantor created for us, no one must
be able to expel us.")
15. Reid, Constance (1996). Hilbert ([Link]
New York: Springer-Verlag. p. 177 ([Link]
7). ISBN 978-0-387-04999-1.
16. ru: The musical encyclopedia (Музыкальная энциклопедия) ([Link]
enc_music/924/Бём).
17. "Georg Cantor (1845-1918)" ([Link]
[Link]). [Link]. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
18. Georg Cantor 1845-1918. Birkhauser. 1985. ISBN 978-3764317706.
19. "Cantor biography" ([Link]
[Link]. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
20. Bruno, Leonard C.; Baker, Lawrence W. (1999). Math and mathematicians: the history of
math discoveries around the world ([Link]
e/54). Detroit, Mich.: U X L. p. 54 ([Link]
54). ISBN 978-0787638139. OCLC 41497065 ([Link]
21. O'Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F. (1998). "Georg Ferdinand Ludwig Philipp Cantor"
([Link] MacTutor History of
Mathematics.
22. Dauben 1979, p. 163.
23. Dauben 1979, p. 34.
24. Dauben 1977, p. 89 15n.
25. Dauben 1979, pp. 2–3; Grattan-Guinness 1971, pp. 354–355.
26. Dauben 1979, p. 138.
27. Dauben 1979, p. 139.
28. Dauben 1979, p. 282.
29. Dauben 1979, p. 136; Grattan-Guinness 1971, pp. 376–377. Letter dated June 21, 1884.
30. Dauben 1979, pp. 281–283.
31. Dauben 1979, p. 283.
32. For a discussion of König's paper see Dauben 1979, pp. 248–250. For Cantor's reaction,
see Dauben 1979, pp. 248, 283.
33. Dauben 1979, pp. 283–284.
34. Dauben 1979, p. 284.
35. Johnson, Phillip E. (1972). "The Genesis and Development of Set Theory". The Two-Year
College Mathematics Journal. 3 (1): 55–62. doi:10.2307/3026799 ([Link]
F3026799). JSTOR 3026799 ([Link]
36. Suppes, Patrick (1972). Axiomatic Set Theory ([Link]
GeAC&pg=PA1). Dover. p. 1. ISBN 9780486616308. "With a few rare exceptions the entities
which are studied and analyzed in mathematics may be regarded as certain particular sets
or classes of objects.... As a consequence, many fundamental questions about the nature of
mathematics may be reduced to questions about set theory."
37. Cantor 1874
38. A countable set is a set which is either finite or denumerable; the denumerable sets are
therefore the infinite countable sets. However, this terminology is not universally followed,
and sometimes "denumerable" is used as a synonym for "countable".
39. The Cantor Set Before Cantor ([Link]
or-set-before-cantor-a-mini-primary-source-project-for-analysis-and-topology-students)
Archived ([Link]
als/convergence/the-cantor-set-before-cantor-a-mini-primary-source-project-for-analysis-an
d-topology-students) 29 August 2022 at the Wayback Machine Mathematical Association of
America
40. Cooke, Roger (1993). "Uniqueness of trigonometric series and descriptive set theory, 1870–
1985". Archive for History of Exact Sciences. 45 (4): 281. doi:10.1007/BF01886630 (https://
[Link]/10.1007%2FBF01886630). S2CID 122744778 ([Link]
usID:122744778).
41. Katz, Karin Usadi; Katz, Mikhail G. (2012). "A Burgessian Critique of Nominalistic
Tendencies in Contemporary Mathematics and its Historiography". Foundations of Science.
17 (1): 51–89. arXiv:1104.0375 ([Link] doi:10.1007/s10699-011-
9223-1 ([Link] S2CID 119250310 ([Link]
[Link]/CorpusID:119250310).
42. Ehrlich, P. (2006). "The rise of non-Archimedean mathematics and the roots of a
misconception. I. The emergence of non-Archimedean systems of magnitudes" ([Link]
[Link]/web/20130215061415/[Link] (PDF).
Arch. Hist. Exact Sci. 60 (1): 1–121. doi:10.1007/s00407-005-0102-4 ([Link]
7%2Fs00407-005-0102-4). S2CID 123157068 ([Link]
3157068). Archived from the original ([Link] (PDF)
on 15 February 2013.
43. This follows closely the first part of Cantor's 1891 paper.
44. Cantor 1874. English translation: Ewald 1996, pp. 840–843.
45. For example, geometric problems posed by Galileo and John Duns Scotus suggested that
all infinite sets were equinumerous – see Moore, A. W. (April 1995). "A brief history of
infinity". Scientific American. 272 (4): 112–116 (114). Bibcode:1995SciAm.272d.112M (http
s://[Link]/abs/1995SciAm.272d.112M). doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0495-
112 ([Link]
46. For this, and more information on the mathematical importance of Cantor's work on set
theory, see e.g., Suppes 1972.
47. Liouville, Joseph (13 May 1844). A propos de l'existence des nombres transcendants (http://
[Link]/mathematiques/theorie-des-nombres/propos-de-lexistence-des-nombre
s-transcendants).
48. The real algebraic numbers are the real roots of polynomial equations with integer
coefficients.
49. For more details on Cantor's article, see Georg Cantor's first set theory article and Gray,
Robert (1994). "Georg Cantor and Transcendental Numbers" ([Link]
0220121155859/[Link]
[Link]) (PDF). American Mathematical Monthly. 101 (9): 819–832. doi:10.2307/2975129 (h
ttps://[Link]/10.2307%2F2975129). JSTOR 2975129 ([Link]
9). Archived from the original ([Link]
rd/[Link]) (PDF) on 21 January 2022. Retrieved 6 December 2013.. Gray (pp.
821–822) describes a computer program that uses Cantor's constructions to generate a
transcendental number.
50. Cantor's construction starts with the set of transcendentals T and removes a countable
subset {tn} (for example, tn = e / n). Call this set T0. Then T = T0 ∪ {tn} = T0 ∪ {t2n-1} ∪ {t2n}.
The set of reals R = T ∪ {an} = T0 ∪ {tn} ∪ {an} where an is the sequence of real algebraic
numbers. So both T and R are the union of three pairwise disjoint sets: T0 and two
countable sets. A one-to-one correspondence between T and R is given by the function:
f(t) = t if t ∈ T0, f(t2n-1) = tn, and f(t2n) = an. Cantor actually applies his construction to the
irrationals rather than the transcendentals, but he knew that it applies to any set formed by
removing countably many numbers from the set of reals (Cantor 1879, p. 4).
51. Dauben 1977, p. 89.
52. Cantor 1883.
53. Cantor (1895), Cantor (1897). The English translation is Cantor 1955.
54. Wallace, David Foster (2003). Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity ([Link]
[Link]/details/everythingmore00davi/page/259). New York: W. W. Norton and Company.
p. 259 ([Link] ISBN 978-0-393-00338-
3.
55. Dauben 1979, pp. 69, 324 63n. The paper had been submitted in July 1877. Dedekind
supported it, but delayed its publication due to Kronecker's opposition. Weierstrass actively
supported it.
56. Some mathematicians consider these results to have settled the issue, and, at most, allow
that it is possible to examine the formal consequences of CH or of its negation, or of axioms
that imply one of those. Others continue to look for "natural" or "plausible" axioms that, when
added to ZFC, will permit either a proof or refutation of CH, or even for direct evidence for or
against CH itself; among the most prominent of these is W. Hugh Woodin. One of Gödel's
last papers argues that the CH is false, and the continuum has cardinality Aleph-2.
57. Cantor 1883, pp. 587–588; English translation: Ewald 1996, pp. 916–917.
58. Hallett 1986, pp. 41–42.
59. Moore 1982, p. 42.
60. Moore 1982, p. 51. Proof of equivalence: If a set is well-ordered, then its cardinality is an
aleph since the alephs are the cardinals of well-ordered sets. If a set's cardinality is an
aleph, then it can be well-ordered since there is a one-to-one correspondence between it
and the well-ordered set defining the aleph.
61. Hallett 1986, pp. 166–169.
62. Cantor's proof, which is a proof by contradiction, starts by assuming there is a set S whose
cardinality is not an aleph. A function from the ordinals to S is constructed by successively
choosing different elements of S for each ordinal. If this construction runs out of elements,
then the function well-orders the set S. This implies that the cardinality of S is an aleph,
contradicting the assumption about S. Therefore, the function maps all the ordinals one-to-
one into S. The function's image is an inconsistent submultiplicity contained in S, so the set
S is an inconsistent multiplicity, which is a contradiction. Zermelo criticized Cantor's
construction: "the intuition of time is applied here to a process that goes beyond all intuition,
and a fictitious entity is posited of which it is assumed that it could make successive
arbitrary choices." (Hallett 1986, pp. 169–170.)
63. Moore 1988, pp. 52–53; Moore and Garciadiego 1981, pp. 330–331.
64. Moore and Garciadiego 1981, pp. 331, 343; Purkert 1989, p. 56.
65. Moore 1982, pp. 158–160. Moore argues that the latter was his primary motivation.
66. Moore devotes a chapter to this criticism: "Zermelo and His Critics (1904–1908)", Moore
1982, pp. 85–141.
67. Moore 1982, pp. 158–160. Zermelo 1908, pp. 263–264; English translation: van Heijenoort
1967, p. 202.
68. Hallett 1986, pp. 288, 290–291. Cantor had pointed out that inconsistent multiplicities face
the same restriction: they cannot be members of any multiplicity. (Hallett 1986, p. 286.)
69. Hallett 1986, pp. 291–292.
70. Zermelo 1930; English translation: Ewald 1996, pp. 1208–1233.
71. Dauben 1979, p. 295.
72. Dauben 1979, p. 120.
73. Hallett 1986, p. 13. Compare to the writings of Thomas Aquinas.
74. Hedman, Bruce (1993). "Cantor's Concept of Infinity: Implications of Infinity for Contingence"
([Link] Perspectives on Science
and Christian Faith. 45 (1): 8–16. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
75. Dauben, Joseph Warren (1979). Georg Cantor: His Mathematics and Philosophy of the
Infinite ([Link] Princeton University Press.
doi:10.2307/j.ctv10crfh1 ([Link] ISBN 9780691024479.
JSTOR j.ctv10crfh1 ([Link] S2CID 241372960 ([Link]
[Link]/CorpusID:241372960).
76. Dauben, Joseph Warren (1978). "Georg Cantor: The Personal Matrix of His Mathematics" (h
ttps://[Link]/stable/231091). Isis. 69 (4): 548. doi:10.1086/352113 ([Link]
1086%2F352113). JSTOR 231091 ([Link] PMID 387662 (http
s://[Link]/387662). S2CID 26155985 ([Link]
pusID:26155985). Retrieved 5 March 2020. "The religious dimension which Cantor
attributed to his transfinite numbers should not be discounted as an aberration. Nor should it
be forgotten or separated from his existence as a mathematician. The theological side of
Cantor's set theory, though perhaps irrelevant for understanding its mathematical content, is
nevertheless essential for the full understanding of his theory and why it developed in its
early stages as it did."
77. Dauben 1979, p. 225
78. Dauben 1979, p. 266.
79. Snapper, Ernst (1979). "The Three Crises in Mathematics: Logicism, Intuitionism and
Formalism" ([Link]
ee%20crises%20in%[Link]) (PDF). Mathematics Magazine. 524 (4): 207–216.
doi:10.1080/0025570X.1979.11976784 ([Link]
84). Archived from the original ([Link]
[Link]) (PDF) on 15 August 2012. Retrieved 2 April 2013.
80. Davenport, Anne A. (1997). "The Catholics, the Cathars, and the Concept of Infinity in the
Thirteenth Century". Isis. 88 (2): 263–295. doi:10.1086/383692 ([Link]
383692). JSTOR 236574 ([Link] S2CID 154486558 ([Link]
[Link]/CorpusID:154486558).
81. Dauben 1977, p. 85.
82. Cantor 1932, p. 404. Translation in Dauben 1977, p. 95.
83. Dauben 1979, p. 296.
84. Newstead, Anne (2009). "Cantor on Infinity in Nature, Number, and the Divine Mind" (https://
[Link]/rec/NEWQOI). American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly. 83 (4): 533–553.
doi:10.5840/acpq200983444 ([Link]
 85. Newstead, Anne (2009). "Cantor on Infinity in Nature, Number, and the Divine Mind".
American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly. 84 (3): 535.
86. Ferreiros, Jose (2004). "The Motives Behind Cantor's Set Theory—Physical, Biological and
Philosophical Questions" ([Link]
pdf) (PDF). Science in Context. 17 (1–2): 49–83. doi:10.1017/S0269889704000055 (https://
[Link]/10.1017%2FS0269889704000055). PMID 15359485 ([Link]
ov/15359485). S2CID 19040786 ([Link]
Archived ([Link]
1/Ferreir%C3%B3s%[Link]) (PDF) from the original on 21 September 2020.
87. Dauben 1979, p. 144.
88. Dauben 1977, pp. 91–93.
89. On Cantor, Husserl, and Gottlob Frege, see Hill and Rosado Haddock (2000).
90. "Dauben 1979, p. 96.
91. Russell, Bertrand The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, George Allen and Unwin Ltd.,
1971 (London), vol. 1, p. 217.
92. E.g., Grattan-Guinness's only evidence on the grandfather's date of death is that he signed
papers at his son's engagement.
93. Purkert and Ilgauds 1985, p. 15.
94. For more information, see: Dauben 1979, p. 1 and notes; Grattan-Guinness 1971, pp. 350–
352 and notes; Purkert and Ilgauds 1985; the letter is from Aczel 2000, pp. 93–94, from
Louis' trip to Chicago in 1863. It is ambiguous in German, as in English, whether the
recipient is included.
95. Men of Mathematics: The Lives and Achievements of the Great Mathematicians from Zeno
to Poincaré, 1937, E. T. Bell
96. Tannery, Paul (1934) Memoires Scientifique 13 Correspondance, Gauthier-Villars, Paris, p.
306.
97. Dauben 1979, p. 274.
98. Mendelsohn, Ezra (ed.) (1993) Modern Jews and their musical agendas ([Link]
au/work/11440061?versionId=13425381), Oxford University Press, p. 9.
99. Ismerjük oket?: zsidó származású nevezetes magyarok arcképcsarnoka, István Reményi
Gyenes Ex Libris, (Budapest 1997), pages 132–133
100. Russell, Bertrand. Autobiography, vol. I, p. 229. In English in the original; italics also as in
the original.
101. Grattan-Guinness 1971, p. 350.
102. Grattan-Guinness 1971 (quotation from p. 350, note), Dauben 1979, p. 1 and notes. (Bell's
Jewish stereotypes appear to have been removed from some postwar editions.)
103. Dauben 1979
104. Dauben, J.: The development of the Cantorian set theory, pp.~181–219. See pp.216–217. In
Bos, H.; Bunn, R.; Dauben, J.; Grattan-Guinness, I.; Hawkins, T.; Pedersen, K. From the
calculus to set theory, 1630–1910. An introductory history. Edited by I. Grattan-Guinness.
Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd., London, 1980.

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8: 46–56. doi:10.15173/russell.v8i1.1732 ([Link]
(inactive 5 November 2024).
Moore, Gregory H.; Garciadiego, Alejandro (1981). "Burali-Forti's Paradox: A Reappraisal of
Its Origins" ([Link] Historia
Mathematica. 8 (3): 319–350. doi:10.1016/0315-0860(81)90070-7 ([Link]
2F0315-0860%2881%2990070-7).
Purkert, Walter (1989). "Cantor's Views on the Foundations of Mathematics". In Rowe,
David E.; McCleary, John (eds.). The History of Modern Mathematics, Volume 1 ([Link]
[Link]/details/historyofmodernm0000symp/page/49). Academic Press. pp. 49–65 ([Link]
[Link]/details/historyofmodernm0000symp/page/49). ISBN 978-0-12-599662-4.
Purkert, Walter; Ilgauds, Hans Joachim (1985). Georg Cantor: 1845–1918. Birkhäuser.
ISBN 978-0-8176-1770-7.
Suppes, Patrick (1972) [1960]. Axiomatic Set Theory ([Link]
ttheo00supp_0). New York: Dover. ISBN 978-0-486-61630-8. Although the presentation is
axiomatic rather than naive, Suppes proves and discusses many of Cantor's results, which
demonstrates Cantor's continued importance for the edifice of foundational mathematics.
Zermelo, Ernst (1908). "Untersuchungen über die Grundlagen der Mengenlehre I" ([Link]
[Link]/dms/load/img/?PPN=PPN235181684_0065&DMDID=DMDLOG_00
18). Mathematische Annalen. 65 (2): 261–281. doi:10.1007/bf01449999 ([Link]
007%2Fbf01449999). S2CID 120085563 ([Link]
563).
Zermelo, Ernst (1930). "Über Grenzzahlen und Mengenbereiche: neue Untersuchungen
über die Grundlagen der Mengenlehre" ([Link]
df) (PDF). Fundamenta Mathematicae. 16: 29–47. doi:10.4064/fm-16-1-29-47 ([Link]
g/10.4064%2Ffm-16-1-29-47). Archived ([Link]
p://[Link]/ksiazki/fm/fm16/[Link]) (PDF) from the original on 28 June
2004.
van Heijenoort, Jean (1967). From Frege to Godel: A Source Book in Mathematical Logic,
1879–1931. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-32449-7.
Bibliography
Older sources on Cantor's life should be treated with caution. See section § Biographies
above.

Primary literature in English

Cantor, Georg (1955) [1915]. Philip Jourdain (ed.). Contributions to the Founding of the
Theory of Transfinite Numbers ([Link] New
York: Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0-486-60045-1..

Primary literature in German

Cantor, Georg (1874). "Ueber eine Eigenschaft des Inbegriffes aller reellen algebraischen
Zahlen" ([Link]
0077___LOG_0014.pdf) (PDF). Journal für die Reine und Angewandte Mathematik. 1874
(77): 258–262. doi:10.1515/crll.1874.77.258 ([Link]
S2CID 199545885 ([Link] Archived (https://
[Link]/web/20171007095818/[Link]
19689_0077/PPN243919689_0077___LOG_0014.pdf) (PDF) from the original on 7 October
2017.
Cantor, Georg (1878). "Ein Beitrag zur Mannigfaltigkeitslehre" ([Link]
e/dms/img/?PID=GDZPPN002156806). Journal für die Reine und Angewandte Mathematik.
1878 (84): 242–258. doi:10.1515/crelle-1878-18788413 ([Link]
878-18788413).
Georg Cantor (1879). "Ueber unendliche, lineare Punktmannichfaltigkeiten (1)" ([Link]
[Link]/dms/load/img/?PPN=PPN235181684_0015&DMDID=DMDLOG_000
4). Mathematische Annalen. 15 (1): 1–7. doi:10.1007/bf01444101 ([Link]
2Fbf01444101). S2CID 179177510 ([Link]
Georg Cantor (1880). "Ueber unendliche, lineare Punktmannichfaltigkeiten (2)" ([Link]
[Link]/dms/load/img/?PPN=PPN235181684_0017&DMDID=DMDLOG_004
3). Mathematische Annalen. 17 (3): 355–358. doi:10.1007/bf01446232 ([Link]
07%2Fbf01446232). S2CID 179177438 ([Link]
38).
Georg Cantor (1882). "Ueber unendliche, lineare Punktmannichfaltigkeiten (3)" ([Link]
[Link]/dms/load/img/?PPN=PPN235181684_0020&DMDID=DMDLOG_001
5). Mathematische Annalen. 20 (1): 113–121. doi:10.1007/bf01443330 ([Link]
07%2Fbf01443330). S2CID 177809016 ([Link]
16).
Georg Cantor (1883). "Ueber unendliche, lineare Punktmannichfaltigkeiten (4)" ([Link]
[Link]/dms/load/img/?PPN=PPN235181684_0021&DMDID=DMDLOG_000
8). Mathematische Annalen. 21 (1): 51–58. doi:10.1007/bf01442612 ([Link]
7%2Fbf01442612). S2CID 179177480 ([Link]
0).
Georg Cantor (1883). "Ueber unendliche, lineare Punktmannichfaltigkeiten (5)" ([Link]
[Link]/dms/load/img/?PPN=PPN235181684_0021&DMDID=DMDLOG_005
1). Mathematische Annalen. 21 (4): 545–591. doi:10.1007/bf01446819 ([Link]
07%2Fbf01446819). S2CID 121930608 ([Link]
08). Published separately as: Grundlagen einer allgemeinen Mannigfaltigkeitslehre.
 Georg Cantor (1884). "Ueber unendliche, lineare Punktmannichfaltigkeiten (6)" ([Link]
[Link]/id/PPN235181684_0023?tify=%7B%22pages%22%3A%5B472%2C47
3%5D%2C%22view%22%3A%22info%22%7D). Mathematische Annalen. 23 (4): 453–488.
doi:10.1007/BF01446598 ([Link] S2CID 179178052 (htt
ps://[Link]/CorpusID:179178052).
Georg Cantor (1891). "Ueber eine elementare Frage der Mannigfaltigkeitslehre" ([Link]
[Link]/pdfcache/PPN37721857X_0001/PPN37721857X_0001___LOG_0029.
pdf) (PDF). Jahresbericht der Deutschen Mathematiker-Vereinigung. 1: 75–78. Archived (htt
ps://[Link]/web/20180101100326/[Link]
7721857X_0001/PPN37721857X_0001___LOG_0029.pdf) (PDF) from the original on 1
January 2018.
Cantor, Georg (1895). "Beiträge zur Begründung der transfiniten Mengenlehre (1)" ([Link]
[Link]/web/20140423224341/[Link]
action=pdf&metsFile=PPN235181684_0046&divID=LOG_0044&pagesize=original&pdfTitle
Page=http%3A%2F%[Link]%2Fdms%2Fload%2Fpdftitle%2F%3Fme
tsFile%3DPPN235181684_0046%7C&targetFileName=PPN235181684_0046_LOG_0044.p
df&). Mathematische Annalen. 46 (4): 481–512. doi:10.1007/bf02124929 ([Link]
1007%2Fbf02124929). S2CID 177801164 ([Link]
1164). Archived from the original ([Link]
on=pdf&metsFile=PPN235181684_0046&divID=LOG_0044&pagesize=original&pdfTitlePag
e=[Link]
targetFileName=PPN235181684_0046_LOG_0044.pdf&) on 23 April 2014.
Cantor, Georg (1897). "Beiträge zur Begründung der transfiniten Mengenlehre (2)" ([Link]
[Link]/[Link]?id=11&PPN=PPN235181684_0049&DMDID=DMDLOG_
0024&L=1). Mathematische Annalen. 49 (2): 207–246. doi:10.1007/bf01444205 ([Link]
org/10.1007%2Fbf01444205). S2CID 121665994 ([Link]
121665994).
Cantor, Georg (1932). Ernst Zermelo (ed.). "Gesammelte Abhandlungen mathematischen
und philosophischen inhalts" ([Link]
[Link]/[Link]?id=11&PPN=PPN237853094&DMDID=DMDLOG_0001&L=1).
Berlin: Springer. Archived from the original ([Link]
1&PPN=PPN237853094&DMDID=DMDLOG_0001&L=1) on 3 February 2014.. Almost
everything that Cantor wrote. Includes excerpts of his correspondence with Dedekind
(p. 443–451) and Fraenkel's Cantor biography (p. 452–483) in the appendix.

Secondary literature
Aczel, Amir D. (2000). The Mystery of the Aleph: Mathematics, the Kabbala, and the Search
for Infinity. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows Publishing.. ISBN 0-7607-7778-0. A
popular treatment of infinity, in which Cantor is frequently mentioned.
Dauben, Joseph W. (June 1983). "Georg Cantor and the Origins of Transfinite Set Theory".
Scientific American. 248 (6): 122–131. Bibcode:1983SciAm.248f.122D ([Link]
[Link]/abs/1983SciAm.248f.122D). doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0683-122 ([Link]
g/10.1038%2Fscientificamerican0683-122).
Ferreirós, José (2007). Labyrinth of Thought: A History of Set Theory and Its Role in
Mathematical Thought. Basel, Switzerland: Birkhäuser.. ISBN 3-7643-8349-6 Contains a
detailed treatment of both Cantor's and Dedekind's contributions to set theory.
Halmos, Paul (1998) [1960]. Naive Set Theory. New York & Berlin: Springer.. ISBN 3-540-
90092-6
Hilbert, David (1926). "Über das Unendliche" ([Link]
g/?PPN=GDZPPN002270641). Mathematische Annalen. 95: 161–190.
 doi:10.1007/BF01206605 ([Link] S2CID 121888793 (htt
ps://[Link]/CorpusID:121888793).
Hill, C. O.; Rosado Haddock, G. E. (2000). Husserl or Frege? Meaning, Objectivity, and
Mathematics. Chicago: Open Court.. ISBN 0-8126-9538-0 Three chapters and 18 index
entries on Cantor.
Meschkowski, Herbert (1983). Georg Cantor, Leben, Werk und Wirkung (Georg Cantor, Life,
Work and Influence, in German). Vieweg, Braunschweig.
Newstead, Anne (2009). "Cantor on Infinity in Nature, Number, and the Divine Mind"[1] (http
s://[Link]/acpq/content/acpq_2009_0083_0004_0533_0553), American Catholic
Philosophical Quarterly, 83 (4): 532–553, [Link] With
acknowledgement of Dauben's pioneering historical work, this article further discusses
Cantor's relation to the philosophy of Spinoza and Leibniz in depth, and his engagement in
the Pantheismusstreit. Brief mention is made of Cantor's learning from [Link].
Penrose, Roger (2004). The Road to Reality. Alfred A. Knopf.. ISBN 0-679-77631-1 Chapter
16 illustrates how Cantorian thinking intrigues a leading contemporary theoretical physicist.
Rucker, Rudy (2005) [1982]. Infinity and the Mind. Princeton University Press.. ISBN 0-553-
25531-2 Deals with similar topics to Aczel, but in more depth.
Rodych, Victor (2007). "Wittgenstein's Philosophy of Mathematics" ([Link]
entries/wittgenstein-mathematics/). In Edward N. Zalta (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University..
Leonida Lazzari, L'infinito di Cantor. Editrice Pitagora, Bologna, 2008.

External links
Quotations related to Georg Cantor at Wikiquote
Media related to Georg Cantor at Wikimedia Commons
Works by or about Georg Cantor ([Link]
A%22Cantor%2C%20Georg%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Georg%20Cantor%22%20O
R%20creator%3A%22Cantor%2C%20Georg%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Georg%20Ca
ntor%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Cantor%2C%20G%2E%22%20OR%20title%3A%22G
eorg%20Cantor%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Cantor%2C%20Georg%22%20OR%2
0description%3A%22Georg%20Cantor%22%29%20OR%20%28%221845-1918%22%20A
ND%20Cantor%29%29%20AND%20%28-mediatype:software%29) at the Internet Archive
O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Georg Cantor" ([Link]
[Link]/Biographies/[Link]), MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St
Andrews
O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "A history of set theory" ([Link]
[Link]/HistTopics/Beginnings_of_set_theory.html), MacTutor History of Mathematics
Archive, University of St Andrews Mainly devoted to Cantor's accomplishment.
Georg Cantor ([Link]
or), [Link]
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Set theory ([Link]
y/) by Thomas Jech. The Early Development of Set Theory ([Link]
s/settheory-early/) by José Ferreirós.
"Cantor infinities", analysis of Cantor's 1874 article, BibNum ([Link]
r/mathematiques/theorie-des-nombres/cantor-et-les-infinis) (for English version, click 'à
télécharger'). There is an error in this analysis. It states Cantor's Theorem 1 correctly:
Algebraic numbers can be counted. However, it states his Theorem 2 incorrectly: Real
numbers cannot be counted. It then says: "Cantor notes that, taken together, Theorems 1
and 2 allow for the redemonstration of the existence of non-algebraic real numbers …" This
existence demonstration is non-constructive. Theorem 2 stated correctly is: Given a
 sequence of real numbers, one can determine a real number that is not in the sequence.
Taken together, Theorem 1 and this Theorem 2 produce a non-algebraic number. Cantor
also used Theorem 2 to prove that the real numbers cannot be counted. See Cantor's first
set theory article or Georg Cantor and Transcendental Numbers ([Link]
efault/files/pdf/upload_library/22/Ford/[Link]) Archived ([Link]
eb/20220121155859/[Link]
[Link]) 21 January 2022 at the Wayback Machine.

Retrieved from "[Link]