Georg Cantor
Georg Cantor was a mathematician and philosopher who worked in the German language and received the Sylvester Medal in recognition of his contributions to his fields. His dual standing as both mathematician and philosopher marked his place among scholars of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Cantor was born on March 3, 1845, in Saint Petersburg. His education took him across several institutions: he studied at the Technical University of Darmstadt, ETH Zurich, Frederick William University in Berlin, and Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. He went on to work as a university teacher and held citizenship in the German Empire.
Cantor carried out his scholarly work in German, and his roles as mathematician, philosopher, and university teacher defined the contours of his professional life. His education across multiple institutions in different cities gave him a broad academic formation before he settled into his teaching career.
Cantor died on January 6, 1918, in Halle (Saale), having been born in Saint Petersburg more than seven decades earlier. The Sylvester Medal, which he received during his lifetime, remains a concrete marker of the recognition accorded to him as a mathematician and philosopher working within the German scholarly tradition.
Quotes by Georg Cantor
The idea of considering the infinitely large not only in the form of the unlimitedly increasing magnitude and in the closely related form of convergent infinite series... but to also fix it mathematically by numbers in the definite form of the completed infinite was logically forced upon me, almost against my will since it was contrary to traditions which I had come to cherish in the course of many years of scientific effort and investigations.
I entertain no doubts as to the truths of the tranfinites, which I recognized with God’s help and which, in their diversity, I have studied for more than twenty years; every year, and almost every day brings me further in this science.
Don’t always blindly follow guidance and step-by-step instructions; you might run into something interesting.
A false conclusion once arrived at and widely accepted is not easily dislodged and the less it is understood the more tenaciously it is held.
The fear of infinity is a form of myopia that destroys the possibility of seeing the actual infinite, even though it in its highest form has created and sustains us, and in its secondary transfinite forms occurs all around us and even inhabits our minds.
My theory stands as firm as a rock; every arrow directed against it will return quickly to its archer. How do I know this? Because I have studied it from all sides for many years; because I have examined all objections which have ever been made against the infinite numbers; and above all because I have followed its roots, so to speak, to the first infallible cause of all created things.