<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The importance of Georg Cantor’s religious convictions is often neglected in discussions of his mathematics and metaphysics. Herein I argue, <italic>pace</italic> Jané (1995), that due to the importance of Christianity to Cantor, he would have never thought of absolutely infinite collections/inconsistent multiplicities, as being merely potential, or as being purely mathematical entities. I begin by considering and rejecting two arguments due to Ignacio Jané based on letters to Hilbert and the generating principles for ordinals, respectively, showing that my reading of Cantor is consistent with that evidence. I then argue that evidence from Cantor’s later writings shows that he was still very religious later in his career, and thus would not have given up on the reality of the absolute, as that would imply an imperfection on the part of God.</p></abstract>

The importance of Georg Cantor’s religious convictions is often neglected in discussions of his mathematics and metaphysics. Herein I argue, pace Jané (1995), that due to the importance of Christianity to Cantor, he would have never thought of absolutely infinite collections/inconsistent multiplicities, as being merely potential, or as being purely mathematical entities. I begin by considering and rejecting two arguments due to Ignacio Jané based on letters to Hilbert and the generating principles for ordinals, respectively, showing that my reading of Cantor is consistent with that evidence. I then argue that evidence from Cantor’s later writings shows that he was still very religious later in his career, and thus would not have given up on the reality of the absolute, as that would imply an imperfection on the part of God.

Cantor, God, and Inconsistent Multiplicities<xref ref-type="fn" rid="fn1_w2aab2b8b9b1b7b1ab1aaAa">*</xref>

Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Cantor, God, and Inconsistent Multiplicities

The importance of Georg Cantor’s religious convictions is often neglected in discussions of his mathematics and metaphysics. Herein I argue, pace Jané (1995),...

Cantor, God, and Inconsistent Multiplicities*

Publié en ligne: 17 mars 2016

Pages: 133 - 146

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/slgr-2016-0008

© 2016 Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.