“Je le vois, mais je ne le crois pas!”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
Figure timeline
Georg Cantor
Georg Ferdinand Ludwig Philipp Cantor was a mathematician who played a pivotal role in the creation of set theory, which has become a fundamental theory in mathematics. Cantor established the importance of one-to-one correspondence between the members of two sets, defined infinite and well-ordered sets, and proved that the real numbers are more numerous than the natural numbers. Cantor's method of…
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
science · Mathematician (1845–1918) · mathematician · philosopher · university teacher · also Georg Cantor, Georg Ferdinand Ludwig Philipp Cantor, Cantor
Born 19 February 1845 · Died 6 January 1918 · Q76420
51 published statements · 0 followers
See & hear
Photos & media
6 photos
Media from Wikimedia Commons, hotlinked at the source under its own licence — see each file for author and terms.
Live now
In the news
Pulling headlines from trusted outlets — this usually takes a few seconds
Checking the wires…
Feed scan
These are live links, not archived citations — they only join the timeline once a collect run verifies and archives them.
Live pulse
Recent highlights
Most recent outstanding titles, awards, and quotes
- Quote
- Quote
s Cantor biography (p. 452–483) in the appendix. Secondary literature Aczel, Amir D. (2000). The Mystery of the Aleph: Mathematics, the Kabbala, and the Search for Infinity. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows Publishing.. ISBN 0-7607-7778-0. A popular treatment of infinity, in which Cantor is frequently mentioned. Dauben, Joseph W. (June 1983).
76%WikipediaSource
2026· 1 entry
2004· 1 entry
Published “Microstructural development in equiatomic multicomponent alloys” in Materials Science and Engineering: A — cited 9,726 times.
- #crossref
- #research
- #work
2000· 1 entry
“s Cantor biography (p. 452–483) in the appendix. Secondary literature Aczel, Amir D. (2000). The Mystery of the Aleph: Mathematics, the Kabbala, and the Search for Infinity. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows Publishing.. ISBN 0-7607-7778-0. A popular treatment of infinity, in which Cantor is frequently mentioned. Dauben, Joseph W. (June 1983).”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
1970· 1 entry
Was memorialized by the naming of Cantor crater on the Moon
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1969· 1 entry
Published “Evolution of Protein Molecules” in Mammalian Protein Metabolism — cited 6,135 times.
- #crossref
- #research
- #work
1932· 1 entry
Zermelo criticized the construction in Cantor's proof
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1930· 1 entry
Zermelo defined models of set theory that satisfy von Neumann's axiom
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1923· 1 entry
John von Neumann developed an axiom system that eliminates the paradoxes with an approach similar to Cantor's—namely, by identifying collections that are not sets and treating them differently
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1918· 8 entries
Died 1918-01-06.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #death
“This view [of the infinite], which I consider to be the sole correct one, is held by only a few. While possibly I am the very first in history to take this position so explicitly, with all of its logical consequences, I know for sure that I shall not be the last!”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
“The actual infinite arises in three contexts: first when it is realized in the most complete form, in a fully independent otherworldly being, in Deo, where I call it the Absolute Infinite or simply Absolute; second when it occurs in the contingent, created world; third when the mind grasps it in abstracto as a mathematical magnitude, number or order type.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
“What I assert and believe to have demonstrated in this and earlier works is that following the finite there is a transfinite (which one could also call the supra-finite), that is an unbounded ascending ladder of definite modes, which by their nature are not finite but infinite, but which just like the finite can be determined by well-defined and distinguishable numbers.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
“A set is a Many that allows itself to be thought of as a One.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
“The fear of infinity is a form of myopia that destroys the possibility of seeing the actual infinite, even though it in its highest form has created and sustains us, and in its secondary transfinite forms occurs all around us and even inhabits our minds.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
“I entertain no doubts as to the truths of the transfinites, which I recognized with God’s help and which, in their diversity, I have studied for more than twenty years; every year, and almost every day brings me further in this science.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
“My theory stands as firm as a rock; every arrow directed against it will return quickly to its archer. How do I know this? Because I have studied it from all sides for many years; because I have examined all objections which have ever been made against the infinite numbers; and above all because I have followed its roots, so to speak, to the first infallible cause of all created things.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
1913· 1 entry
And lived in poverty and suffered from malnourishment during World War I
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1911· 1 entry
Cantor was one of the distinguished foreign scholars invited to the 500th anniversary of the founding of the University of St
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1908· 1 entry
Zermelo published his axiom system for set theory
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1904· 3 entries
Won Sylvester Medal (1904).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #trophy
- #achievement
Using the axiom of choice, but his proof was criticized for a variety of reasons
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
The Royal Society awarded Cantor its Sylvester Medal, the highest honor it can confer for work in mathematics
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1903· 1 entry
And attending the International Congress of Mathematicians at Heidelberg in 1904
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1899· 1 entry
Sent Dedekind a proof of the equivalent aleph theorem: the cardinality of every infinite set is an aleph
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1897· 1 entry
Adolf Hurwitz and Jacques Hadamard also both expressed their admiration
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1895· 1 entry
And 1897, Cantor published a two-part paper in Mathematische Annalen under Felix Klein's editorship; these were his last significant papers on set theory
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1891· 2 entries
Became increasingly uncomfortable with the prospect of having Cantor as a colleague, perceiving him as a "corrupter of youth" for teaching his ideas to a younger generation of mathematicians
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Cantor published a paper containing his "diagonal argument" for the existence of an uncountable set
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1890· 1 entry
Career landmark: chairperson (1890–1893).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #milestone
1889· 1 entry
Cantor was instrumental in founding the German Mathematical Society, and he chaired its first meeting in Halle in 1891, where he first introduced his diagonal argument; his reputation was strong enough, despite Kronecker
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1888· 1 entry
Cantor published his correspondence with several philosophers on set theory's philosophical implications
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1885· 2 entries
Extended his theory of order types so that the ordinal numbers simply became a special case of order types
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Mittag-Leffler was concerned about the philosophical nature and new terminology in a paper Cantor had submitted to Acta
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1883· 3 entries
Was the most important of the six and was also published as a separate monograph
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Cantor divided the infinite into the transfinite and the absolute
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Cantor also introduced the well-ordering principle "every set can be well-ordered" and called it a "law of thought"
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1882· 1 entry
The mathematical correspondence between Cantor and Dedekind came to an end, apparently as a result of Dedekind's declining the chair at Halle
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1881· 1 entry
Cantor's Halle colleague Eduard Heine died
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1878· 1 entry
Cantor submitted another paper to Crelle's Journal in which he precisely defined the concept of a 1-to-1 correspondence and introduced the notion of "power" (a term he took from Jakob Steiner) or "equivalence" of sets: t
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1875· 1 entry
Is nowhere dense, but has the same cardinality as the set of all real numbers, whereas the rationals are everywhere dense, but countable
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1874· 1 entry
Cantor married Vally Guttmann
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1872· 1 entry
Cited this paper later that year, in the paper where he first set out his celebrated definition of real numbers by Dedekind cuts
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1869· 1 entry
Studied at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, habilitation (1869).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #education
1867· 1 entry
Studied at Frederick William University Berlin, Doctor (1863–1867).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #education
1863· 1 entry
Studied at ETH Zurich (1862–1863).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #education
1862· 2 entries
Cantor entered the Swiss Federal Polytechnic in Zurich
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Studied at Technical University of Darmstadt (1860–1862).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #education
1860· 1 entry
Cantor graduated with distinction from the Realschule in Darmstadt; his exceptional skills in mathematics, trigonometry in particular, were noted
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1856· 1 entry
Which forced the family to seek out a more temperate climate
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1845· 2 entries
Born 1845-02-19.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #birth
In Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, was brought up in that city until the age of eleven
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event