[FOM] Infinitesimal calculus

Alex Blum blumal at mail.biu.ac.il
Sun May 31 10:47:05 EDT 2009


Brian Hart wrote:

>Gödel sent a letter to Robinson commending him on his fine work on
>non-standard analysis and he stated that he thought that it would
>become much more important than it has become since.  Why is this?  Is
>it because it just isn't as useful as Gödel thought it would be or
>that it could become much more useful in the future but we just don't
>know yet?  Interestingly enough from the perspective of the history of
>math, Robinson was good enough of a mathematician that he was
>seriously considered to replace Gödel at the IAS but tragically died
>shortly thereafter.
>  
>
For no reason other than historical accuracy, I wonder if it wouldn't be 
more appropriate to say that Robinson was seriously considered to
fill the vacancy leftr by Godel rather than to replace Godel.
Alex Blum



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