Skip to main content

You are not logged in. Your edit will be placed in a queue until it is peer reviewed.

We welcome edits that make the post easier to understand and more valuable for readers. Because community members review edits, please try to make the post substantially better than how you found it, for example, by fixing grammar or adding additional resources and hyperlinks.

6
  • $\begingroup$ You may want to clarify that the "widely reported statement" may be apocriphal as we have no document by Kronecker containing such a statement. Rather, it was reported by Weber after Kronecker was safely underground. Kronecker scholars have raised doubts about the accuracy of Weber's report. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 2, 2017 at 15:53
  • $\begingroup$ @MikhailKatz based on this it is probably not apocryphal. $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 1, 2020 at 17:09
  • $\begingroup$ @Spencer, the page you linked provides the following quote from Kronecker: "The principal difference between geometry and mechanics on one hand, and the other mathematical disciplines we comprehend under the name of \arithmetic, consists according to Gauss in this: the object of the latter, number, is a pure product of our mind, while space as well as time has reality also outside of our mind which we cannot fully prescribe a priori. (Kronecker, Uber den Zahlbegriff, 1887, p. 339)" This quote is not apocryphal, and goes in the opposite direction of Weber's phrase. $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 5, 2022 at 9:17
  • $\begingroup$ @MikhailKatz So, assuming Weber is correct in claiming Kronecker made the famous quote, how do you reconcile the two? $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 5, 2022 at 16:23
  • $\begingroup$ @Spencer, we have on the one hand a direct quotation from Kronecker expressing anti-Platonist views, and on the other a report after Kronecker's death by Weber, phrased in reportedly "condescending" terminology (see the comment by Felscher at the post you linked). The choice is yours. $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 5, 2022 at 19:47