Weyl Vindicated: Das Kontinuum Seventy Years Later

Abstract

Abstract In his book Das Kontinuum (1918), Hermann Weyl initiated a program for the arithmetical foundation of mathematics. This was overshadowed by Hilbert’s program for finitist foundations via formal consistency proofs and Brouwer’s program for the “intuitionistic” constructive redevelopment of mathematics, both of which eventually met serious problems. Modern logical work has made it possible to give considerable substance to Weyl’s program, showing it to be surprisingly viable for scientifically applicable mathematics.