Exploring Felix Klein's contested modernism (Q6557241)

The contention whether the great mathematician Felix Klein was modern or countermodern is the subject of the article. The marxist historian Herbert Mehrtens (HM) attempted to depict Klein as countermodern. In the article, the scientific plausibility to this view is explored. Even by the tailor-made definition by HM of modern and countermodern mathematicians, the authors argue that Felix Klein is by no means countermodern. Disagreements persist regarding Klein's modernity, but the majority of historians of mathematics are supporting it. The authors then analyze the shared views by Klein and Hilbert on the importance of intuition in mathematics, and their views on logic and physics. They are so similar that the uncontested modernism of Hilbert can be easily ascribed to Klein as well.