FOM: Constructive v. Nonstandard Analysis, and rapprochement

[David Ross]

In an off-list exchange on the subject of rapprochement, I mentioned to
the moderator the symposium in Venice last May on  nonstandard and
constructive analysis (entitled 'Reuniting the Antipodes: Constructive and 
Nonstandard Views of the Continuum', and attended by several subscribers to FOM).  
He asked me to give a report on that conference to this list.

Instead, let me just (a) give a pointer to the apparently-still-alive
web site: http://www.mathematik.uni-muenchen.de/~antipode/; and (b)
suggest that people keep an eye open for the conference proceedings,
which is under construction.

It is worth mentioning - for those who are unaware of this - that there
has traditionally been a split between these two areas on both a
mathematical and social level. The conceptual split is clear:
nonstandard analysis is a branch of classical mathematics, so is subject
to the usual criticisms of the constructivists. However, a non-
technical split was incited some years ago by an unnecessarily nasty
attack on one of the areas by a leading practitioner of the other. This
conference actually addressed both splits (with some success), which is why it seemed
to me to be relevant to recent events on the FOM.

David A. Ross
Professor of Mathematics
University of Hawaii
ross at math.hawaii.edu
www.math.hawaii.edu/~ross