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Single Idea 17968

[filed under theme 26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 8. Scientific Essentialism / d. Knowing essences ]

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 Ref

'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.


The 29 ideas from David Hilbert

The facts of geometry, arithmetic or statics order themselves into theories [Hilbert]
Number theory just needs calculation laws and rules for integers [Hilbert]
The whole of Euclidean geometry derives from a basic equation and transformations [Hilbert]
Axioms must reveal their dependence (or not), and must be consistent [Hilbert]
To decide some questions, we must study the essence of mathematical proof itself [Hilbert]
By digging deeper into the axioms we approach the essence of sciences, and unity of knowedge [Hilbert]
Hilbert aimed to eliminate number from geometry [Hilbert, by Hart,WD]
Euclid axioms concerns possibilities of construction, but Hilbert's assert the existence of objects [Hilbert, by Chihara]
Hilbert's formalisation revealed implicit congruence axioms in Euclid [Hilbert, by Horsten/Pettigrew]
Hilbert's geometry is interesting because it captures Euclid without using real numbers [Hilbert, by Field,H]
The existence of an arbitrarily large number refutes the idea that numbers come from experience [Hilbert]
Logic already contains some arithmetic, so the two must be developed together [Hilbert]
You would cripple mathematics if you denied Excluded Middle [Hilbert]
Hilbert said (to block paradoxes) that mathematical existence is entailed by consistency [Hilbert, by Potter]
My theory aims at the certitude of mathematical methods [Hilbert]
I aim to establish certainty for mathematical methods [Hilbert]
The idea of an infinite totality is an illusion [Hilbert]
There is no continuum in reality to realise the infinitely small [Hilbert]
No one shall drive us out of the paradise the Cantor has created for us [Hilbert]
The subject matter of mathematics is immediate and clear concrete symbols [Hilbert]
We extend finite statements with ideal ones, in order to preserve our logic [Hilbert]
Mathematics divides in two: meaningful finitary statements, and empty idealised statements [Hilbert]
We believe all mathematical problems are solvable [Hilbert]
Only the finite can bring certainty to the infinite [Hilbert]
If axioms and their implications have no contradictions, they pass my criterion of truth and existence [Hilbert]
Hilbert aimed to prove the consistency of mathematics finitely, to show infinities won't produce contradictions [Hilbert, by George/Velleman]
The grounding of mathematics is 'in the beginning was the sign' [Hilbert]
Hilbert substituted a syntactic for a semantic account of consistency [Hilbert, by George/Velleman]
Hilbert wanted to prove the consistency of all of mathematics (which realists take for granted) [Hilbert, by Friend]