UNSPECIFIED
(2016)
Georg Cantor.
At Right Angles, 5 (2).
pp. 24-25.
Abstract
Georg Cantor was born in 1845 in St Petersburg, Russia, and when he was eleven he moved with his family to Germany. Cantor’s father was a devout Christian and had a strong influence on his son. In a letter to 15-year-old Cantor, he wrote: “. . .How often the most promising individuals are defeated after a tenuous, weak resistance in their first struggle following their entry into practical affairs. Their courage broken, they atrophy completely. . . ” He goes on to say that such people lacked “that steady heart” and the “truly religious spirit” which one obtained by a “humble feeling of the most reverence for God.” Cantor’s father seemed to have an uncanny prescience for the enormous difficulties that Cantor would face. This strong religious influence would shape Cantor’s world- view, and perhaps explains how he dealt with the severe criticism he experienced in his later life as a mathematician.
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