Leopold Kronecker

Born Dec. 7, 1823, in Liegnitz, now Legnica, Poland; died Dec. 29, 1891, in Berlin. German mathematician. Member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences (1861). Professor at the University of Berlin from 1883.

Kronecker’s principal works were devoted to algebra and the theory of numbers, where he continued the studies of his teacher E. Kummer on the theory of quadratic forms and the theory of groups. His studies on the arithmetic theory of algebraic numbers are of extreme importance. Kronecker advocated an “arithmeticization” of mathematics, which he believed should be reduced to the arithmetic of integers. He asserted that only integers possess authentic reality. Defending these one-sided views, Kronecker strongly opposed the principles of the functional-theoretic school of K. Weierstrass and the set-theoretic school of G. Cantor.

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