Abstract
In the first half of this essay, I try to trace the development of Dedekindʼs theory of numbers from his inaugural lecture to his monumental theory of natural numbers, in which Dedekind complementarily employed his genetic and axiomatic methods. Further I briefly mention Fregean logicism. In the second half, I am concerned with the emergence of meta-mathematical inquiries into the completeness theorems proved by Post,Bernays, Gödel, and with Gödel's anticipation of his Incompleteness Theorem.
