In Mathematics, The Art Of Asking Questions

My Beautiful Proof Lies All In Ruins.

Mathematics Is Entirely Free In Its Development, And Its Concepts Are Only Linked By The Necessity Of Being Consistent, And Are Co-ordinated With Concepts Introduced Previously By Means Of Precise Definitions.

My Theory Stands As Firm As A Rock; Every Arrow Directed Against It Will Return Quickly To Its Archer. How Do I Know This? Because I Have Studied It From All Sides For Many Years; Because I Have Examined All Objections Which Have Ever Been Made Against The Infinite Numbers; And Above All Because I Have Followed Its Roots, So To Speak, To The First Infallible Cause Of All Created Things.

This View [of The Infinite], Which I Consider To Be The Sole Correct One, Is Held By Only A Few. While Possibly I Am The Very First In History To Take This Position So Explicitly, With All Of Its Logical Consequences, I Know For Sure That I Shall Not Be The Last!

What I Assert And Believe To Have Demonstrated In This And Earlier Works Is That Following The Finite There Is A Transfinite (which One Could Also Call The Supra-finite), That Is An Unbounded Ascending Lader Of Definite Modes, Which By Their Nature Are Not Finite But Infinite, But Which Just Like The Finite Can Be Determined By Well-defined And Distinguishable Numbers.