Cantor, Moritz (1829 - 1920)

Professor of History of Mathematics in Germany

Cantor is known for his lectures on the history of mathematics. His history contains many errors, partly corrected by Gustaf Eneström, a sharp critic of Cantor. Nevertheless, Cantors work is still regarded as one of the basic (and most comprehensive) projects to the history of mathematics.
One criticism of Cantor's work was his view that the Indo-Arabic decimal system already was from the Pythagoreans, to which it served the so-called geometry II, which was attributed to Boethius as evidence - he held this compilation of 11 Century still for an original work of Boethius. He also dealt in other articles with the tradition of the Hindu-Arabic arithmetic in the West and studied the tradition of the practical aspects of the geometry from antiquity to the Middle Ages (The Roman agrimensores).

variant spelling:
Cantor, Moritz

Curriculum vitae

* 23.08.1829	Mannheim	born
1848 - 1851	Heidelberg	studied mathematics
1851 - 1852	Göttingen	studied mathematics by Carl Friedrich Gauss, Wilhelm Weber and Moritz Stern
06.05.1851		Doctorate "Ein wenig gebräuchliches Coordinatensystem"
1852	Berlin	studied mathematics by Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet and Jakob Steiner
1853	Heidelberg	private lecturer
1853	Heidelberg	Habilitation "Grundzüge einer Elementar-Arithmetik"
1860 - ?	Heidelberg	taught the history of mathematics
1863	Heidelberg	adjunct professor
1875 - 1913	Heidelberg	honorary professor
1913		retirement
† 10.04.1920	Heidelberg	died

Collections

Industrialisation, ca. 1850-1920

Literature

	Vorlesungen über Geschichte der Mathematik Author: Cantor, Moritz (Ed.); Cantor, Moritz Published: 1880 -
	Vorlesungen über Geschichte der Mathematik: Von den ältesten Zeiten bis zum J. 1200 n. Chr. ; mit 114 Figuren im Text und einer lithogr. Tafel Author: Cantor, Moritz Published: 1894
	Vorlesungen über Geschichte der Mathematik: Von 1200 - 1668 Author: Cantor, Moritz Published: 1892
	Vorlesungen über Geschichte der Mathematik: Von 1668 - 1758 Author: Cantor, Moritz Published: 1898
	Vorlesungen über Geschichte der Mathematik: Von 1759 - 1799 Author: Cantor, Moritz (Ed.) Published: 1924

Permanent links

DMG-Lib		https://www.dmg-lib.org/dmglib/handler?biogr=17755004
Europeana		http://www.europeana.eu/portal/record/2020801/dmglib_handler_biogr_17755004.html
GBV		http://gso.gbv.de/PPN?PPN=133863603