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Full Idea
God made the integers, all the rest is the work of man.
Gist of Idea
God made the integers, all the rest is the work of man
Source
Leopold Kronecker (works [1885]), quoted by A.George / D.J.Velleman - Philosophies of Mathematics Intro
Book Ref
George,A/Velleman D.J.: 'Philosophies of Mathematics' [Blackwell 2002], p.13
A Reaction
This famous remark was first quoted in Kronecker's obituary. A response to Dedekind, it seems. See Idea 10090. Did he really mean that negative numbers were the work of God? We took a long time to spot them.
Related Idea
Idea 10090 Dedekind defined the integers, rationals and reals in terms of just the natural numbers [Dedekind, by George/Velleman]