Full Idea
By pushing ahead to ever deeper layers of axioms ...we also win ever-deeper insights into the essence of scientific thought itself, and become ever more conscious of the unity of our knowledge.
Gist of Idea
By digging deeper into the axioms we approach the essence of sciences, and unity of knowedge
Source
David Hilbert (Axiomatic Thought [1918], [56])
Book Reference
'From Kant to Hilbert: sourcebook Vol. 2', ed/tr. Ewald,William [OUP 1996], p.1115
A Reaction
This is the less fashionable idea that scientific essentialism can also be applicable in the mathematic sciences, centring on the project of axiomatisation for logic, arithmetic, sets etc.