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(2013) L. E. J. Brouwer – topologist, intuitionist, philosopher, Dordrecht, Springer.
Brouwer was extremely critical of Hilbert's formalism, which was completely opposed to the intuitionistic philosophy of mathematics. Brouwer trod softly in his publications in order to avoid conflict. However, when Hermann Weyl joined Brouwer's intuitionism, his "New crisis-paper' the tone changed. Hilbert told Brouwer and Weyl in unmistakable terms how wrong they were. The Grundlagenstreit was born. The conflict dragged on for years.From time to time the scientific discussion was replaced by external causes. One such was the planned publication of the Riemann memorial volume by the Mathematische Annalen. A conflict arose when the participation of French mathematicians could in this project of their arch enemy was questioned. One section of the editorial board objected to the French participation, which was advocated by Hilbert. The conflict left bad feelings.Inspired by the contributions of Alexandrov, Menger, and Urysohn, Brouwer collected in 1925 a small group of topologists in Amsterdam, including Vietoris and Wilson. The brief concentration of topologists was later called the Dutch topological school.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4471-4616-2_12
Full citation:
van Dalen, D. (2013). Progress, recognition, and frictions, in L. E. J. Brouwer – topologist, intuitionist, philosopher, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 435-490.
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