From Kronecker to Brouwer

pp. 118-147

in: Yvon Gauthier, Internal logic, Berlin, Springer, 2002

Abstract

There is no need to recall the polemics between Kronecker and Cantor, simply because it did not exist. H. Edwards (1987) has recently shown that if there has been any quarrel between the two, it has not been the virulent one some had evoked. The intransigent Kronecker, a <Verbotsdiktator> in Hilbert's words, is supposed to have been a fiend of Cantor, whom he would have called a youth perverter <Verderber der Jugend>. Cantor is said to have returned the compliment by calling Kronecker <der kleine Despot>. I would like to draw the attention to facts of a more mathematical import.