In the
philosophy of mathematics,
finitism is an extreme form of
constructivism, according to which a mathematical object does not exist unless it can be constructed from
natural numbers in a
finite number of steps.
(Most constructivists, in contrast, allow a
countably infinite number of steps.)
The most famous proponent of finitism was
Leopold Kronecker[?], who said:
- "God created the integers, all else is the work of man."
Although modern constructivists don't take such a strong view, they can trace the origins of constructivism back to Kronecker's work.