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Leopold Kronecker was an international authority in Mathematics, gifted for abstraction, with extremely
strong views [1] p:20. He had a very clear strategy to promote natual integers everywhere. He was creating
new proofs of existing theorems, but regardless of if it was regular Mathematics exercises or rather to have
his own way to implement his natural integer strategy, having the willingness to create new proofs of existing
theorems is more on the genious side than the talented one. However, often his proofs of existing theorems,
based on natural integers were more complex to understand than the original ones. Therefore, his peers did
not see the point. As a consequence he could be seen as a strong minded rigorist somehow irritating and
feared by his peers.
Unfortunaletly a big part of his work, his “Nachlass” together with papers from Kurt Hensel were acciden-
tally destroyed by an explosion in 1945. As Kronecker was a world class Mathematician, his claims and strong
positions have been reported by his peers, so we are still lucky to have track of second hand information.
What can be learnt from Leopold Kronecker? (apart his well known theorems):
(1) He was encouraging the use of natural numbers for transverse theories including: number theory,
algebra, theory of elliptical [1]p:22-23.
(2) He led by example combining arithmetic, algebra, and analysis for his speciality: the elliptical func-
tions.
(3) Eventually he’s proofs relied on natural numbers
(4) His strategy to rely excessively on natural integers made him restrict the use of irrational numbers on
others’ work [1] p:38.
Relying excessively on natural integers while keeping Mathematics simple, is a decent proposal in our digital society and will never be obsolete
[1] Patrick Hatfield Carey: Georg Cantor and Leopold Kronecker’s Dispute over Transfinite Numbers