Paul Finsler

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Paul Finsler (born April 11, 1894 in Heilbronn , † April 29, 1970 in Zurich ) was a Swiss mathematician who dealt with geometry (Finsler spaces) and the fundamentals of mathematics.

life and work

Finsler was the son of a Swiss businessman (from an old Zurich family) and the brother of Hans Finsler . He attended the Latin school in Urach and the Realgymnasium in Cannstatt . In 1912 Finsler began studying at the Technical University of Stuttgart , where he attended lectures by Martin Wilhelm Kutta . From 1913 he was at the University of Göttingen , where he studied with Erich Hecke , Felix Klein , Edmund Landau , David Hilbert , Max Born , Ludwig Prandtl and Carl Runge and received his doctorate from Constantin Carathéodory in 1919 ( On curves and surfaces in general spaces . 1918). In his dissertation, he introduced the Finsler spaces , which generalize Riemannian geometry and which, among others, Élie Cartan took up (he wrote a book about it in 1934). In 1922 he completed his habilitation at the University of Cologne , where he became a private lecturer. In the meantime he had turned to the basics of mathematics and set theory. In 1926 he wrote a fundamental paper that anticipated Gödel's result ( Formal Proofs and Decidability , Mathematische Zeitschrift 1926), but was ignored. In 1927 he became an associate professor at the University of Zurich and, in 1944, a full professor. In 1959 he retired.

His original approach to set theory, first published in 1926 in the Mathematische Zeitschrift ( On the Foundations of Set Theory , the second part only appeared in 1964), met with rejection, not least because he used a terminology of his choice that no one else used. His lecture about it at the Mathematical Colloquium of the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich was sharply criticized by Hermann Weyl , which is why Finsler suffered a breakdown and was taken on leave. Finsler's colleagues Rudolf Fueter and Andreas Speiser then commissioned Johann Jakob Burckhardt to put Finsler's ideas into an understandable form and to publish them in the annual report of the German Association of Mathematicians.

Finsler was a Platonist and distrusted formalistic thinking. He also dealt with number theory, probability theory (among other things on the probability of rare events) and most recently with graph theory.

Finsler was also an amateur astronomer who discovered several comets (1924 and 1937, the second is named after him). Finsler remained single.

Fonts

  • About curves and surfaces in general spaces. Dissertation 1918, reprinted by Birkhäuser in 1951.
  • Are there any contradictions in mathematics? Inaugural lecture Cologne 1923, DMV annual report, Volume 34, 1926, pp. 143–155
  • Formal evidence and decidability. Mathematische Zeitschrift, Volume 25, 1926, pp. 676-682.
  • About the foundation of set theory. First part. Mathematische Zeitschrift, Volume 25, 1926, pp. 683-7 13, Part Two : Defense , Commentarii Mathematici Helvetici (CMH), Volume 38, 1964, pp. 172-218.
  • The existence of the series of numbers and the continuum , Commentarii Mathematici Helvetici, Volume 5, 1933, pp. 88-94.
  • Essays on set theory. Darmstadt: Scientific Book Society 1975 (Editor: Georg Unger)
  • Finsler Set Theory: Platonism and Circularity. Translation of Paul Finsler's papers on set theory with introductory comments. Edited by David Booth and Renatus Ziegler. (Annotated edition of the essays on set theory) Birkhäuser, Basel-Boston-Berlin 1996.

literature

  • JJ Burckhardt: The mathematics at the University of Zurich 1916-1950 under the professors R. Fueter, A. Speiser and P. Finsler. Basel 1980.
  • Booth, R. Ziegler (Editor): Finsler set theory. 1996.
  • H. Breger A restoration that failed - Paul Finsler's Theory of Sets. In: Donald Gillies (editor) Revolutions in Mathematics. New York, Oxford University Press, 1992, p. 249.
  • Christel Ketelsen: Why were Gödel's border considerations more successful than Finsler's? In: Gödel's incompleteness sentences. On the history of their creation and reception. Stuttgart: Steiner, 1994, p. 131ff.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Johann Caspar Lavater was one of his ancestors
  2. ↑ Gödel answered the question of Georg Unger, editor of Finsler's essays on set theory, whether he was aware of this work by Finsler, with yes. But he doesn't have to quote it, it's not exact.
  3. ↑ Burckhardt's biography by Günther Frei , Elements of Mathematics, 2003, p. 136
personal data
SURNAME Finsler, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH April 11, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Heilbronn
DATE OF DEATH April 29, 1970
Place of death Zurich