Richard Dedekind: style and influence (Q1694961): Difference between revisions

This is basically an abstract in English of the author's recent German edition [\textit{R. Dedekind}, Was sind und was sollen die Zahlen? Stetigkeit und irrationale Zahlen. Berlin: Springer Spektrum (2017; Zbl 1372.01091)] of Dedekind's two short books ``Stetigkeit und Irrationale Zahlen'' (1872) [JFM 36.0242.01] and ``Was sind und was sollen die Zahlen'' (1888) [JFM 36.0087.04] with focus on the latter. The author recognizes an ``impressive and unique style in his works and a generous character in his communication with colleagues'' (p. 180). In one section, the relation between Dedekind's axioms for the natural numbers and recursion theory is discussed. The author comes to the result that it was ``Dedekind who first brought the recursive thinking to its full power by proving the recursion theorem'' (p. 184). The author considers the reception of Dedekind's work as ``partly a story of misunderstandings, which had both positive and negative results'' (p. 184).