A non-standard analysis of a cultural icon: the case of Paul Halmos (Q528518)

Paul Halmos not only was a great mathematician but also a decidedly commentator on certain mathematical things. It is known that in his `automathography' [I want to be a mathematician. An automathography. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag (1985; Zbl 0668.01018)] he rejected, for example, Dedekind cuts as well as nonstandard analysis. The authors of the paper under review examine Halmos' comments on category theory, Dedekind cuts, logic, nonstandard infinitesimals, and other things and conclude that Halmos saw mathematics as something certain, while 20th-century logic teaches us that mathematics is full of uncertainty or incompleteness. Halmos' opinions are compared with what his pupil Errett Bishop did when he opposed classical mathematics as a whole.