Georg Cantor Quotes
This view, which I consider to be the sole correct one, is held by only a few. While possibly I am the very first in history to take this position so explicitly, with all of its logical consequences, I know for sure that I shall not be the last!.
When he first developed and published his Set Theory and Transfinite Arithmetic concepts, few professional mathematicians understood his material although he had successfully taught it to 8th grade girls. The material was so counter-intuitive in the mathematic intuition of the day, most of the greatest mathematicians in Germany viewed his work not only as flawed but absurd. It did not take too long however for most to “get it” and come over to his intuitive view which soon the world held.
Georg Ferdinand Ludwig Philipp Cantor, 1845–1918, Russian Born Jewish German Mathematician, Creator of Transfinite Arithmetic Quoted in William Dunham, Journey Through Genius, 1990
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While this has generally been true, there have been many major exceptions like Einstein’s Theory of Relativity which was accepted rapidly be leading scientists even before the empirical truth had been demonstrated. The generalization has become less true in the 21st century where new scientific knowledge was almost an every day occurrence.
Georg Ferdinand Ludwig Philipp Cantor was a German mathematician. He created 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. In fact, 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.
