David Hilbert

David Hilbert (/ˈhɪlbərt/;[3] German: [ˈdaːvɪt ˈhɪlbɐt];

23 January 1862 – 14 February 1943) was a German David Hilbert
mathematician and philosopher of mathematics and
one of the most influential mathematicians of his time.

Hilbert discovered and developed a broad range of

fundamental ideas including invariant theory, the
calculus of variations, commutative algebra, algebraic
number theory, the foundations of geometry, spectral
theory of operators and its application to integral
equations, mathematical physics, and the foundations
of mathematics (particularly proof theory). He adopted
and defended Georg Cantor's set theory and transfinite
numbers. In 1900, he presented a collection of
problems that set a course for mathematical research of
the 20th century.[4][5]
Hilbert in 1912
Hilbert and his students contributed to establishing
Born 23 January 1862
rigor and developed important tools used in modern
Königsberg or Wehlau,
mathematical physics. He was a cofounder of proof
Kingdom of Prussia
theory and mathematical logic.[6]
Died 14 February 1943 (aged 81)
Göttingen, Nazi Germany

Life Education University of Königsberg

(PhD)
Known for Hilbert's basis theorem
Early life and education Hilbert's Nullstellensatz
Hilbert's axioms
Hilbert, the first of two children and only son of Otto, a
Hilbert's problems
county judge, and Maria Therese Hilbert (née
Hilbert's program
Erdtmann), the daughter of a merchant, was born in the
Einstein–Hilbert action
Province of Prussia, Kingdom of Prussia, either in
Hilbert space
Königsberg (according to Hilbert's own statement) or
Hilbert system
in Wehlau (known since 1946 as Znamensk) near
Epsilon calculus
Königsberg where his father worked at the time of his
birth. His paternal grandfather was David Hilbert, a Spouse Käthe Jerosch
judge and Geheimrat. His mother Maria had an interest Children Franz (b. 1893)
in philosophy, astronomy and prime numbers, while Awards Lobachevsky Prize (1903)
his father Otto taught him Prussian virtues. After his Bolyai Prize (1910)
father became a city judge, the family moved to ForMemRS (1928)[1]
Scientific career
Königsberg. David's sister, Elise, was born when he Fields Mathematics, Physics and
was six. He began his schooling aged eight, two years Philosophy
later than the usual starting age.[7] Institutions University of Königsberg
Göttingen University
In late 1872, Hilbert entered the Friedrichskolleg
Thesis On Invariant Properties of
Gymnasium (Collegium fridericianum, the same
school that Immanuel Kant had attended 140 years Special Binary Forms,
before); but, after an unhappy period, he transferred to Especially of Spherical
Functions (1885)
(late 1879) and graduated from (early 1880) the more
science-oriented Wilhelm Gymnasium.[8] Upon Doctoral Ferdinand von Lindemann[2]
graduation, in autumn 1880, Hilbert enrolled at the advisor
University of Königsberg, the "Albertina". In early Doctoral
1882, Hermann Minkowski (two years younger than students Wilhelm Ackermann
Hilbert and also a native of Königsberg but had gone to
Heinrich Behmann
Berlin for three semesters),[9] returned to Königsberg
Felix Bernstein
and entered the university. Hilbert developed a lifelong
friendship with the shy, gifted Minkowski.[10][11] Otto Blumenthal
Anne Bosworth
Werner Boy
Career
Ugo Broggi
In 1884, Adolf Hurwitz arrived from Göttingen as an
Richard Courant
Extraordinarius (i.e., an associate professor). An
intense and fruitful scientific exchange among the Haskell Curry
three began, and Minkowski and Hilbert especially Max Dehn
would exercise a reciprocal influence over each other Ludwig Föppl
at various times in their scientific careers. Hilbert Rudolf Fueter
obtained his doctorate in 1885, with a dissertation,
Paul Funk
written under Ferdinand von Lindemann,[2] titled Über
Kurt Grelling
invariante Eigenschaften spezieller binärer Formen,
insbesondere der Kugelfunktionen ("On the invariant Alfréd Haar
properties of special binary forms, in particular the Erich Hecke
spherical harmonic functions"). Earle Hedrick
Ernst Hellinger
Hilbert remained at the University of Königsberg as a
Privatdozent (senior lecturer) from 1886 to 1895. In Wallie Hurwitz
1895, as a result of intervention on his behalf by Felix Margarete Kahn
Klein, he obtained the position of Professor of Oliver Kellogg
Mathematics at the University of Göttingen. During Hellmuth Kneser
the Klein and Hilbert years, Göttingen became the
Robert König
preeminent institution in the mathematical world.[12]
Emanuel Lasker
He remained there for the rest of his life.
Klara Löbenstein
Charles Max Mason
Göttingen school
Alexander Myller
Among Hilbert's students were Hermann Weyl, chess
Erhard Schmidt
champion Emanuel Lasker, Ernst Zermelo, and Carl
Kurt Schütte
Gustav Hempel. John von Neumann was his assistant.
At the University of Göttingen, Hilbert was surrounded Andreas Speiser
by a social circle of some of the most important Hugo Steinhaus
mathematicians of the 20th century, such as Emmy Gabriel Sudan
Noether and Alonzo Church.
Teiji Takagi
Among his 69 Ph.D. students in Göttingen were many Hermann Weyl
who later became famous mathematicians, including Ernst Zermelo
(with date of thesis): Otto Blumenthal (1898), Felix
Other notable Edward Kasner
Bernstein (1901), Hermann Weyl (1908), Richard
students John von Neumann
Courant (1910), Erich Hecke (1910), Hugo Steinhaus
Carl Gustav Hempel
(1911), and Wilhelm Ackermann (1925).[13] Between

The Mathematical Institute in

Göttingen. Its new building,
constructed with funds from the
Rockefeller Foundation, was
opened by Hilbert and Courant in
1930.

1902 and 1939 Hilbert was editor of the

Hilbert in 1886 Hilbert in 1907 Mathematische Annalen, the leading
mathematical journal of the time. He was
elected an International Member of the
United States National Academy of Sciences in 1907.[14]

Personal life
In 1892, Hilbert married Käthe Jerosch (1864–1945), who was the daughter of a Königsberg merchant,
"an outspoken young lady with an independence of mind that matched [Hilbert's]."[15] While at
Königsberg, they had their one child, Franz Hilbert (1893–1969). Franz suffered throughout his life from
mental illness, and after he was admitted into a psychiatric clinic, Hilbert said, "From now on, I must
consider myself as not having a son." His attitude toward Franz brought Käthe considerable sorrow.[16]

Hilbert considered the mathematician Hermann Minkowski to be his "best and truest friend".[17]

Hilbert was baptized and raised a Calvinist in the Prussian Evangelical Church.[a] He later left the Church
and became an agnostic.[b] He also argued that mathematical truth was independent of the existence of
God or other a priori assumptions.[c][d] When Galileo Galilei was criticized for failing to stand up for his
 Hilbert and his wife Käthe Jerosch Franz Hilbert
(1892)

convictions on the Heliocentric theory, Hilbert objected: "But

[Galileo] was not an idiot. Only an idiot could believe that
scientific truth needs martyrdom; that may be necessary in Käthe Hilbert with Constantin
religion, but scientific results prove themselves in due time."[e] Carathéodory, before 1932

Later years
Like Albert Einstein, Hilbert had closest contacts with the Berlin Group whose leading founders had
studied under Hilbert in Göttingen (Kurt Grelling, Hans Reichenbach and Walter Dubislav).[18]

Around 1925, Hilbert developed pernicious anemia, a then-untreatable vitamin deficiency whose primary
symptom is exhaustion; his assistant Eugene Wigner described him as subject to "enormous fatigue" and
how he "seemed quite old," and that even after eventually being diagnosed and treated, he "was hardly a
scientist after 1925, and certainly not a Hilbert."[19]

Hilbert was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1932.[20]

Hilbert lived to see the Nazis purge many of the prominent faculty members at University of Göttingen in
1933.[21] Those forced out included Hermann Weyl (who had taken Hilbert's chair when he retired in
1930), Emmy Noether and Edmund Landau. One who had to leave Germany, Paul Bernays, had
collaborated with Hilbert in mathematical logic, and co-authored with him the important book
Grundlagen der Mathematik[22] (which eventually appeared in two volumes, in 1934 and 1939). This was
a sequel to the Hilbert–Ackermann book Principles of Mathematical Logic from 1928. Hermann Weyl's
successor was Helmut Hasse.

About a year later, Hilbert attended a banquet and was seated next to the new Minister of Education,
Bernhard Rust. Rust asked whether "the Mathematical Institute really suffered so much because of the
departure of the Jews." Hilbert replied, "Suffered? It doesn't exist any longer, does it?"[23][24]

Death
By the time Hilbert died in 1943, the Nazis had nearly completely restaffed the university, as many of the
former faculty had either been Jewish or married to Jews. Hilbert's funeral was attended by fewer than a
dozen people, only two of whom were fellow academics, among them Arnold Sommerfeld, a theoretical
physicist and also a native of Königsberg.[25] News of his death
only became known to the wider world several months after he
died.[26]

The epitaph on his tombstone in Göttingen consists of the famous

lines he spoke at the conclusion of his retirement address to the
Society of German Scientists and Physicians on 8 September
1930. The words were given in response to the Latin maxim:
"Ignoramus et ignorabimus" or "We do not know and we shall not
know":[27]

Wir müssen wissen. We must know.

Wir werden wissen. We shall know.

The day before Hilbert pronounced these phrases at the 1930 Hilbert's tomb:
annual meeting of the Society of German Scientists and Wir müssen wissen
Physicians, Kurt Gödel—in a round table discussion during the Wir werden wissen
Conference on Epistemology held jointly with the Society
meetings—tentatively announced the first expression of his
incompleteness theorem.[f] Gödel's incompleteness theorems show that even elementary axiomatic
systems such as Peano arithmetic are either self-contradicting or contain logical propositions that are
impossible to prove or disprove within that system.

Contributions to mathematics and physics

Solving Gordan's Problem

Hilbert's first work on invariant functions led him to the demonstration in 1888 of his famous finiteness
theorem. Twenty years earlier, Paul Gordan had demonstrated the theorem of the finiteness of generators
for binary forms using a complex computational approach. Attempts to generalize his method to functions
with more than two variables failed because of the enormous difficulty of the calculations involved. To
solve what had become known in some circles as Gordan's Problem, Hilbert realized that it was
necessary to take a completely different path. As a result, he demonstrated Hilbert's basis theorem,
showing the existence of a finite set of generators, for the invariants of quantics in any number of
variables, but in an abstract form. That is, while demonstrating the existence of such a set, it was not a
constructive proof—it did not display "an object"—but rather, it was an existence proof[28] and relied on
use of the law of excluded middle in an infinite extension.

Hilbert sent his results to the Mathematische Annalen. Gordan, the house expert on the theory of
invariants for the Mathematische Annalen, could not appreciate the revolutionary nature of Hilbert's
theorem and rejected the article, criticizing the exposition because it was insufficiently comprehensive.
His comment was:
 Das ist nicht Mathematik. Das ist This is not Mathematics. This is
Theologie. Theology.[29]

Klein, on the other hand, recognized the importance of the work, and guaranteed that it would be
published without any alterations. Encouraged by Klein, Hilbert extended his method in a second article,
providing estimations on the maximum degree of the minimum set of generators, and he sent it once more
to the Annalen. After having read the manuscript, Klein wrote to him, saying:

Without doubt this is the most important work on general algebra that the Annalen has ever
published.[30]

Later, after the usefulness of Hilbert's method was universally recognized, Gordan himself would say:

I have convinced myself that even theology has its merits.[31]

For all his successes, the nature of his proof created more trouble than Hilbert could have imagined.
Although Kronecker had conceded, Hilbert would later respond to others' similar criticisms that "many
different constructions are subsumed under one fundamental idea"—in other words (to quote Reid):
"Through a proof of existence, Hilbert had been able to obtain a construction"; "the proof" (i.e. the
symbols on the page) was "the object".[31] Not all were convinced. While Kronecker would die soon
afterwards, his constructivist philosophy would continue with the young Brouwer and his developing
intuitionist "school", much to Hilbert's torment in his later years.[32] Indeed, Hilbert would lose his
"gifted pupil" Weyl to intuitionism—"Hilbert was disturbed by his former student's fascination with the
ideas of Brouwer, which aroused in Hilbert the memory of Kronecker".[33] Brouwer the intuitionist in
particular opposed the use of the Law of Excluded Middle over infinite sets (as Hilbert had used it).
Hilbert responded:

Taking the Principle of the Excluded Middle from the mathematician ... is the same as ...
prohibiting the boxer the use of his fists.[34]

Nullstellensatz
In the subject of algebra, a field is called algebraically closed if and only if every polynomial over it has
a root in it. Under this condition, Hilbert gave a criterion for when a collection of polynomials
of variables has a common root: This is the case if and only if there do not exist polynomials
and indices such that

.
This result is known as the Hilbert root theorem, or "Hilberts Nullstellensatz" in German. He also
proved that the correspondence between vanishing ideals and their vanishing sets is bijective between
affine varieties and radical ideals in .

Curve
In 1890, Giuseppe Peano had published an article in the
Mathematische Annalen describing the historically first space-
filling curve. In response, Hilbert designed his own construction
of such a curve, which is now called Hilbert curve.
Approximations to this curve are constructed iteratively according
to the replacement rules in the first picture of this section. The
curve itself is then the pointwise limit.

The first six approximations to the

Hilbert curve

Axiomatization of geometry The replacement rules

The text Grundlagen der Geometrie (tr.: Foundations of

Geometry) published by Hilbert in 1899 proposes a formal set, called Hilbert's axioms, substituting for
the traditional axioms of Euclid. They avoid weaknesses identified in those of Euclid, whose works at the
time were still used textbook-fashion. It is difficult to specify the axioms used by Hilbert without
referring to the publication history of the Grundlagen since Hilbert changed and modified them several
times. The original monograph was quickly followed by a French translation, in which Hilbert added V.2,
the Completeness Axiom. An English translation, authorized by Hilbert, was made by E.J. Townsend and
copyrighted in 1902.[35][36] This translation incorporated the changes made in the French translation and
so is considered to be a translation of the 2nd edition. Hilbert continued to make changes in the text and
several editions appeared in German. The 7th edition was the last to appear in Hilbert's lifetime. New
editions followed the 7th, but the main text was essentially not revised.[g]

Hilbert's approach signaled the shift to the modern axiomatic method. In this, Hilbert was anticipated by
Moritz Pasch's work from 1882. Axioms are not taken as self-evident truths. Geometry may treat things,
about which we have powerful intuitions, but it is not necessary to assign any explicit meaning to the
undefined concepts. The elements, such as point, line, plane, and others, could be substituted, as Hilbert
is reported to have said to Schoenflies and Kötter, by tables, chairs, glasses of beer and other such
objects.[37] It is their defined relationships that are discussed.
Hilbert first enumerates the undefined concepts: point, line, plane, lying on (a relation between points and
lines, points and planes, and lines and planes), betweenness, congruence of pairs of points (line
segments), and congruence of angles. The axioms unify both the plane geometry and solid geometry of
Euclid in a single system.

23 problems
Hilbert put forth a highly influential list consisting of 23 unsolved problems at the International Congress
of Mathematicians in Paris in 1900. This is generally reckoned as the most successful and deeply
considered compilation of open problems ever to be produced by an individual mathematician.

After reworking the foundations of classical geometry, Hilbert could have extrapolated to the rest of
mathematics. His approach differed from the later "foundationalist" Russell–Whitehead or
"encyclopedist" Nicolas Bourbaki, and from his contemporary Giuseppe Peano. The mathematical
community as a whole could engage in problems of which he had identified as crucial aspects of
important areas of mathematics.

The problem set was launched as a talk, "The Problems of Mathematics", presented during the course of
the Second International Congress of Mathematicians held in Paris. The introduction of the speech that
Hilbert gave said:

Who among us would not be happy to lift the veil behind which is hidden the future; to gaze at
the coming developments of our science and at the secrets of its development in the centuries to
come? What will be the ends toward which the spirit of future generations of mathematicians
will tend? What methods, what new facts will the new century reveal in the vast and rich field
of mathematical thought?[38]

He presented fewer than half the problems at the Congress, which were published in the acts of the
Congress. In a subsequent publication, he extended the panorama, and arrived at the formulation of the
now-canonical 23 Problems of Hilbert (see also Hilbert's twenty-fourth problem). The full text is
important, since the exegesis of the questions still can be a matter of debate when it is asked how many
have been solved.

Some of these were solved within a short time. Others have been discussed throughout the 20th century,
with a few now taken to be unsuitably open-ended to come to closure. Some continue to remain
challenges.

The following are the headers for Hilbert's 23 problems as they appeared in the 1902 translation in the
Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society.

1. Cantor's problem of the cardinal number of the continuum.

2. The compatibility of the arithmetical axioms.
3. The equality of the volumes of two tetrahedra of equal bases and equal altitudes.
4. Problem of the straight line as the shortest distance between two points.
5. Lie's concept of a continuous group of transformations without the assumption of the
differentiability of the functions defining the group.
6. Mathematical treatment of the axioms of physics.
7. Irrationality and transcendence of certain numbers.
8. Problems of prime numbers (The "Riemann Hypothesis").
 9. Proof of the most general law of reciprocity in any number field.
10. Determination of the solvability of a Diophantine equation.
11. Quadratic forms with any algebraic numerical coefficients
12. Extensions of Kronecker's theorem on Abelian fields to any algebraic realm of
rationality
13. Impossibility of the solution of the general equation of 7th degree by means of
functions of only two arguments.
14. Proof of the finiteness of certain complete systems of functions.
15. Rigorous foundation of Schubert's enumerative calculus.
16. Problem of the topology of algebraic curves and surfaces.
17. Expression of definite forms by squares.
18. Building up of space from congruent polyhedra.
19. Are the solutions of regular problems in the calculus of variations always necessarily
analytic?
20. The general problem of boundary values (Boundary value problems in PDE's).
21. Proof of the existence of linear differential equations having a prescribed monodromy
group.
22. Uniformization of analytic relations by means of automorphic functions.
23. Further development of the methods of the calculus of variations.

Formalism
In an account that had become standard by the mid-century, Hilbert's problem set was also a kind of
manifesto that opened the way for the development of the formalist school, one of three major schools of
mathematics of the 20th century. According to the formalist, mathematics is manipulation of symbols
according to agreed upon formal rules. It is therefore an autonomous activity of thought.

Program
In 1920, Hilbert proposed a research project in metamathematics that became known as Hilbert's
program. He wanted mathematics to be formulated on a solid and complete logical foundation. He
believed that in principle this could be done by showing that:

1. all of mathematics follows from a correctly chosen finite system of axioms; and
2. that some such axiom system is provably consistent through some means such as the
epsilon calculus.
He seems to have had both technical and philosophical reasons for formulating this proposal. It affirmed
his dislike of what had become known as the ignorabimus, still an active issue in his time in German
thought, and traced back in that formulation to Emil du Bois-Reymond.[39]

This program is still recognizable in the most popular philosophy of mathematics, where it is usually
called formalism. For example, the Bourbaki group adopted a watered-down and selective version of it as
adequate to the requirements of their twin projects of (a) writing encyclopedic foundational works, and
(b) supporting the axiomatic method as a research tool. This approach has been successful and influential
in relation with Hilbert's work in algebra and functional analysis, but has failed to engage in the same
way with his interests in physics and logic.

Hilbert wrote in 1919:

 We are not speaking here of arbitrariness in any sense. Mathematics is not like a game whose
tasks are determined by arbitrarily stipulated rules. Rather, it is a conceptual system possessing
internal necessity that can only be so and by no means otherwise.[40]

Hilbert published his views on the foundations of mathematics in the 2-volume work, Grundlagen der
Mathematik.

Gödel's work
Hilbert and the mathematicians who worked with him in his enterprise were committed to the project. His
attempt to support axiomatized mathematics with definitive principles, which could banish theoretical
uncertainties, ended in failure.

Gödel demonstrated that any non-contradictory formal system, which was comprehensive enough to
include at least arithmetic, cannot demonstrate its completeness by way of its own axioms. In 1931 his
incompleteness theorem showed that Hilbert's grand plan was impossible as stated. The second point
cannot in any reasonable way be combined with the first point, as long as the axiom system is genuinely
finitary.

Nevertheless, the subsequent achievements of proof theory at the very least clarified consistency as it
relates to theories of central concern to mathematicians. Hilbert's work had started logic on this course of
clarification; the need to understand Gödel's work then led to the development of recursion theory and
then mathematical logic as an autonomous discipline in the 1930s. The basis for later theoretical
computer science, in the work of Alonzo Church and Alan Turing, also grew directly out of this
"debate".[41]

Functional analysis
Around 1909, Hilbert dedicated himself to the study of differential and integral equations; his work had
direct consequences for important parts of modern functional analysis. In order to carry out these studies,
Hilbert introduced the concept of an infinite dimensional Euclidean space, later called Hilbert space. His
work in this part of analysis provided the basis for important contributions to the mathematics of physics
in the next two decades, though from an unanticipated direction. Later on, Stefan Banach amplified the
concept, defining Banach spaces. Hilbert spaces are an important class of objects in the area of functional
analysis, particularly of the spectral theory of self-adjoint linear operators, that grew up around it during
the 20th century.

Physics
Until 1912, Hilbert was almost exclusively a pure mathematician. When planning a visit from Bonn,
where he was immersed in studying physics, his fellow mathematician and friend Hermann Minkowski
joked he had to spend 10 days in quarantine before being able to visit Hilbert. In fact, Minkowski seems
responsible for most of Hilbert's physics investigations prior to 1912, including their joint seminar on the
subject in 1905.
In 1912, three years after his friend's death, Hilbert turned his focus to the subject almost exclusively. He
arranged to have a "physics tutor" for himself.[42] He started studying kinetic gas theory and moved on to
elementary radiation theory and the molecular theory of matter. Even after the war started in 1914, he
continued seminars and classes where the works of Albert Einstein and others were followed closely.

By 1907, Einstein had framed the fundamentals of the theory of gravity, but then struggled for nearly
8 years to put the theory into its final form.[43] By early summer 1915, Hilbert's interest in physics had
focused on general relativity, and he invited Einstein to Göttingen to deliver a week of lectures on the
subject.[44] Einstein received an enthusiastic reception at Göttingen.[45] Over the summer, Einstein
learned that Hilbert was also working on the field equations and redoubled his own efforts. During
November 1915, Einstein published several papers culminating in The Field Equations of Gravitation
(see Einstein field equations).[h] Nearly simultaneously, Hilbert published "The Foundations of Physics",
an axiomatic derivation of the field equations (see Einstein–Hilbert action). Hilbert fully credited Einstein
as the originator of the theory and no public priority dispute concerning the field equations ever arose
between the two men during their lives.[i] See more at priority.

Additionally, Hilbert's work anticipated and assisted several advances in the mathematical formulation of
quantum mechanics. His work was a key aspect of Hermann Weyl and John von Neumann's work on the
mathematical equivalence of Werner Heisenberg's matrix mechanics and Erwin Schrödinger's wave
equation, and his namesake Hilbert space plays an important part in quantum theory. In 1926,
von Neumann showed that, if quantum states were understood as vectors in Hilbert space, they would
correspond with both Schrödinger's wave function theory and Heisenberg's matrices.[j]

Throughout this immersion in physics, Hilbert worked on putting rigor into the mathematics of physics.
While highly dependent on higher mathematics, physicists tended to be "sloppy" with it. To a pure
mathematician like Hilbert, this was both ugly, and difficult to understand. As he began to understand
physics and how physicists were using mathematics, he developed a coherent mathematical theory for
what he found – most importantly in the area of integral equations. When his colleague Richard Courant
wrote the now classic Methoden der mathematischen Physik (Methods of Mathematical Physics)
including some of Hilbert's ideas, he added Hilbert's name as author even though Hilbert had not directly
contributed to the writing. Hilbert said "Physics is too hard for physicists", implying that the necessary
mathematics was generally beyond them; the Courant–Hilbert book made it easier for them.

Number theory
Hilbert unified the field of algebraic number theory with his 1897 treatise Zahlbericht (literally "report on
numbers"). He also resolved a significant number-theory problem formulated by Waring in 1770. As with
the finiteness theorem, he used an existence proof that shows there must be solutions for the problem
rather than providing a mechanism to produce the answers.[46] He then had little more to publish on the
subject; but the emergence of Hilbert modular forms in the dissertation of a student means his name is
further attached to a major area.

He made a series of conjectures on class field theory. The concepts were highly influential, and his own
contribution lives on in the names of the Hilbert class field and of the Hilbert symbol of local class field
theory. Results were mostly proved by 1930, after work by Teiji Takagi.[k]
Hilbert did not work in the central areas of analytic number theory, but his name has become known for
the Hilbert–Pólya conjecture, for reasons that are anecdotal. Ernst Hellinger, a student of Hilbert, once
told André Weil that Hilbert had announced in his seminar in the early 1900s that he expected the proof of
the Riemann Hypothesis would be a consequence of Fredholm's work on integral equations with a
symmetric kernel.[47]

Works
His collected works (Gesammelte Abhandlungen) have been published several times. The original
versions of his papers contained "many technical errors of varying degree";[48] when the collection was
first published, the errors were corrected and it was found that this could be done without major changes
in the statements of the theorems, with one exception—a claimed proof of the continuum
hypothesis.[49][50] The errors were nonetheless so numerous and significant that it took Olga Taussky-
Todd three years to make the corrections.[50]

See also

Biography portal
 Philosophy portal

Concepts
List of things named after David Hilbert Hilbert–Smith conjecture
Foundations of geometry
Hilbert C*-module
Theorems
Hilbert cube
Hilbert–Burch theorem
Hilbert curve
Hilbert's irreducibility theorem
Hilbert matrix
Hilbert's Nullstellensatz
Hilbert metric
Hilbert's theorem (differential geometry)
Hilbert–Mumford criterion
Hilbert's Theorem 90
Hilbert number
Hilbert's syzygy theorem
Hilbert ring
Hilbert–Speiser theorem
Hilbert–Poincaré series
Hilbert series and Hilbert polynomial
Hilbert space Other
Hilbert spectrum Brouwer–Hilbert controversy
Hilbert system Direct method in the calculus of variations
Hilbert transform Entscheidungsproblem
Hilbert's arithmetic of ends Geometry and the Imagination
Hilbert's paradox of the Grand Hotel General relativity priority dispute
Hilbert–Schmidt operator

Footnotes
a. The Hilberts had, by this time, left the Calvinist Protestant church in which they had been
baptized and married. – Reid 1996, p.91
b. David Hilbert seemed to be agnostic and had nothing to do with theology proper or even
religion. Constance Reid tells a story on the subject:

The Hilberts had by this time [around 1902] left the Reformed Protestant Church
in which they had been baptized and married. It was told in Göttingen that when
[David Hilbert's son] Franz had started to school he could not answer the
question, "What religion are you?" (1970, p. 91)

In the 1927 Hamburg address, Hilbert asserted: "mathematics is pre-suppositionless

science (die Mathematik ist eine voraussetzungslose Wissenschaft)" and "to found it I do
not need a good God ([z]u ihrer Begründung brauche ich weder den lieben Gott)" (1928, S.
85; van Heijenoort, 1967, p. 479). However, from Mathematische Probleme (1900) to
Naturerkennen und Logik (1930) he placed his quasi-religious faith in the human spirit and
in the power of pure thought with its beloved child– mathematics. He was deeply convinced
that every mathematical problem could be solved by pure reason: in both mathematics and
any part of natural science (through mathematics) there was "no ignorabimus" (Hilbert,
1900, S. 262; 1930, S. 963; Ewald, 1996, pp. 1102, 1165). That is why finding an inner
absolute grounding for mathematics turned into Hilbert's life-work. He never gave up this
position, and it is symbolic that his words "wir müssen wissen, wir werden wissen" ("we
 must know, we shall know") from his 1930 Königsberg address were engraved on his
tombstone. Here, we meet a ghost of departed theology (to modify George Berkeley's
words), for to absolutize human cognition means to identify it tacitly with a divine one. —
Shaposhnikov, Vladislav (2016). "Theological Underpinnings of the Modern Philosophy of
Mathematics. Part II: The Quest for Autonomous Foundations" ([Link]
lgr-2016-0009). Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric. 44 (1): 147–168. doi:10.1515/slgr-
2016-0009 ([Link]
c. "Mathematics is a presuppositionless science. To found it I do not need God, as does
Kronecker, or the assumption of a special faculty of our understanding attuned to the
principle of mathematical induction, as does Poincaré, or the primal intuition of Brouwer, or,
finally, as do Russell and Whitehead, axioms of infinity, reducibility, or completeness, which
in fact are actual, contentual assumptions that cannot be compensated for by consistency
proofs." David Hilbert, Die Grundlagen der Mathematik, Hilbert's program, 22C:096,
University of Iowa ([Link]
e_notes/Hilbert_program.html).
d. Michael R. Matthews (2009). Science, Worldviews and Education. Springer. p. 129.
ISBN 978-90-481-2779-5. "As is well known, Hilbert rejected Leopold Kronecker's God for
the solution of the problem of the foundations of mathematics."
e. Constance Reid; Hermann Weyl (1970). Hilbert ([Link]
2z0). Springer-Verlag. p. 92 ([Link]
ISBN 978-0-387-04999-1. "Perhaps the guests would be discussing Galileo's trial and
someone would blame Galileo for failing to stand up for his convictions. "But he was not an
idiot," Hilbert would object. "Only an idiot could believe that scientific truth needs martyrdom;
that may be necessary in religion, but scientific results prove themselves in due time." "
f. "The Conference on Epistemology of the Exact Sciences ran for three days, from 5 to 7
September" (Dawson 1997:68). "It ... was held in conjunction with and just before the ninety-
first annual meeting of the Society of German Scientists and Physicians ... and the sixth
Assembly of German Physicists and Mathematicians.... Gödel's contributed talk took place
on Saturday, 6 September [1930], from 3 until 3:20 in the afternoon, and on Sunday the
meeting concluded with a round table discussion of the first day's addresses. During the
latter event, without warning and almost offhandedly, Gödel quietly announced that "one can
even give examples of propositions (and in fact of those of the type of Goldbach or Fermat)
that, while contentually true, are unprovable in the formal system of classical mathematics
[153]" (Dawson:69) "... As it happened, Hilbert himself was present at Königsberg, though
apparently not at the Conference on Epistemology. The day after the roundtable discussion
he delivered the opening address before the Society of German Scientists and Physicians –
his famous lecture Naturerkennen und Logik (Logic and the knowledge of nature), at the
end of which he declared: 'For the mathematician there is no Ignorabimus, and, in my
opinion, not at all for natural science either. ... The true reason why [no-one] has succeeded
in finding an unsolvable problem is, in my opinion, that there is no unsolvable problem. In
contrast to the foolish Ignorabimus, our credo avers: We must know, We shall know [159]'"
(Dawson:71). Gödel's paper was received on November 17, 1930 (cf Reid p. 197, van
Heijenoort 1976:592) and published on 25 March 1931 (Dawson 1997:74). But Gödel had
given a talk about it beforehand... "An abstract had been presented in October 1930 to the
Vienna Academy of Sciences by Hans Hahn" (van Heijenoort:592); this abstract and the full
paper both appear in van Heijenoort:583ff.
g. Independently and contemporaneously, a 19 year-old American student named Robert Lee
Moore published an equivalent set of axioms. Some of the axioms coincide, while some of
the axioms in Moore's system are theorems in Hilbert's and vice versa.
h. In time, associating the gravitational field equations with Hilbert's name became less and
less common. A noticeable exception is P. Jordan (Schwerkraft und Weltall, Braunschweig,
Vieweg, 1952), who called the equations of gravitation in the vacuum the Einstein–Hilbert
equations. (Leo Corry, David Hilbert and the Axiomatization of Physics, p. 437)
 i. Since 1971 there have been some spirited and scholarly discussions about which of the two
men first presented the now accepted form of the field equations. "Hilbert freely admitted,
and frequently stated in lectures, that the great idea was Einstein's: "Every boy in the streets
of Gottingen understands more about four dimensional geometry than Einstein," he once
remarked. "Yet, in spite of that, Einstein did the work and not the mathematicians." (Reid
1996, pp. 141–142, also Isaacson 2007:222 quoting Thorne p. 119).
j. In 1926, the year after the matrix mechanics formulation of quantum theory by Max Born
and Werner Heisenberg, the mathematician John von Neumann became an assistant to
Hilbert at Göttingen. When von Neumann left in 1932, von Neumann's book on the
mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics, based on Hilbert's mathematics, was
published under the title Mathematische Grundlagen der Quantenmechanik. See: Norman
Macrae (1999) John von Neumann: The Scientific Genius Who Pioneered the Modern
Computer, Game Theory, Nuclear Deterrence, and Much More (reprinted by the American
Mathematical Society) and Reid (1996).
k. This work established Takagi as Japan's first mathematician of international stature.

Citations
1. Weyl, H. (1944). "David Hilbert. 1862–1943". Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal
Society. 4 (13): 547–553. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1944.0006 ([Link]
44.0006). S2CID 161435959 ([Link]
2. David Hilbert ([Link] at the Mathematics Genealogy
Project
3. "Hilbert" ([Link] Random House Webster's Unabridged
Dictionary.
4. Joyce, David. "The Mathematical Problems of David Hilbert" ([Link]
yce/hilbert/). Clark University. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
5. Hilbert, David. "Mathematical Problems" ([Link]
[Link]). Retrieved 15 January 2021.
6. Zach, Richard (31 July 2003). "Hilbert's Program" ([Link]
ogram/). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 23 March 2009.
7. Reid 1996, pp. 1–3 ([Link] also
on p. 8 ([Link] Reid notes that
there is some ambiguity as to exactly where Hilbert was born. Hilbert himself stated that he
was born in Königsberg.
8. Reid 1996, p. 4–7 ([Link]
9. Reid 1996, p. 11 ([Link]
10. Reid 1996, p. 12 ([Link]
11. Weyl, Hermann (2012), "David Hilbert and his Mathematical Work", in Peter Pesic (ed.),
Levels of Infinity/Selected writings on Mathematics and Philosophy, Dover, p. 94, ISBN 978-
0-486-48903-2
12. Suzuki, Jeff (2009), Mathematics in Historical Context ([Link]
ew5IC5piCwC&q=gottingen+mathematics&pg=PA342), Mathematical Association of
America, p. 342, ISBN 978-0-88385-570-6
13. "The Mathematics Genealogy Project – David Hilbert" ([Link]
u/html/[Link]?id=7298). Retrieved 7 July 2007.
14. "David Hilbert" ([Link]
tml). [Link]. Retrieved 30 June 2023.
15. Reid 1996, p. 36 ([Link]
16. Reid 1996, p. 139 ([Link]
17. Reid 1996, p. 121.
18. Milkov, Nikolay; Peckhaus, Volker (1 January 2013). "The Berlin Group and the Vienna
Circle: Affinities and Divergences". The Berlin Group and the Philosophy of Logical
Empiricism ([Link] (PDF). Boston Studies un the
Philosophy and History of Science. Vol. 273. p. 20. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-5485-0_1 (http
s://[Link]/10.1007%2F978-94-007-5485-0_1). ISBN 978-94-007-5485-0.
OCLC 7325392474 ([Link] Archived ([Link]
[Link]/web/20140820161819/[Link] (PDF) from the
original on 20 August 2014. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
19. 1992 (as told to Andrew Szanton). The Recollections of Eugene P. Wigner. Plenum. ISBN 0-
306-44326-0
20. "APS Member History" ([Link]
&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advance
d). [Link]. Retrieved 30 June 2023.
21. " "Shame" at Göttingen" ([Link]
[Link]/[Link]/component/content/[Link]?task=view). Archived from the original (htt
p://[Link]/[Link]/component/content/[Link]?task=view) on 5
November 2013. Retrieved 5 June 2013. (Hilbert's colleagues exiled)
22. Milne-Thomson, L (1935). "abstract for Grundlagen der Mathematik" ([Link]
m/articles/136126a0). Nature. 136 (3430): 126–127. doi:10.1038/136126a0 ([Link]
0.1038%2F136126a0). S2CID 4122792 ([Link]
2). Retrieved 15 December 2023. "This is probably the most important book on mathe-
matical foundations which has appeared since Whitehead and Russell's "Principia
Mathematical" "
23. Eckart Menzler-Trott: Gentzens Problem. Mathematische Logik im nationalsozialistischen
Deutschland., Birkhäuser, 2001, ISBN 3-764-36574-9, Birkhäuser; Auflage: 2001 p. 142.
24. Hajo G. Meyer: Tragisches Schicksal. Das deutsche Judentum und die Wirkung historischer
Kräfte: Eine Übung in angewandter Geschichtsphilosophie, Frank & Timme, 2008, ISBN 3-
865-96174-6, p. 202.
25. Reid 1996, p. 213.
26. Reid 1996, p. 214.
27. Reid 1996, p. 192.
28. Reid 1996, p. 36–37 ([Link]
29. Reid 1996, p. 34.
30. Reid 1996, p. 195.
31. Reid 1996, p. 37 ([Link]
32. cf. Reid 1996, pp. 148–149.
33. Reid 1996, p. 148.
34. Reid 1996, p. 150.
35. Hilbert 1950
36. G. B. Mathews(1909) The Foundations of Geometry ([Link]
80/n2066/pdf/[Link]) from Nature 80:394,5 (#2066)
37. Otto Blumenthal (1935). David Hilbert (ed.). Lebensgeschichte ([Link]
20160304122623/[Link]
PPN237834022&divID=LOG_0001&pagesize=original&pdfTitlePage=http%3A%2F%2Fgdz.
[Link]%2Fdms%2Fload%2Fpdftitle%2F%3FmetsFile%3DPPN237834022%
7C&targetFileName=PPN237834022_LOG_0001.pdf&). Gesammelte Abhandlungen. Vol. 3.
Julius Springer. pp. 388–429. Archived from the original ([Link]
[Link]/gcs/gcs?action=pdf&metsFile=PPN237834022&divID=LOG_0001&pagesize=origina
l&pdfTitlePage=[Link]
2%7C&targetFileName=PPN237834022_LOG_0001.pdf&) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved
6 September 2018. Here: p.402-403
38. "Archived copy" ([Link]
u/courses/cs121/handouts/[Link]) (PDF). Archived from the original on 30 May 2009.
Retrieved 11 September 2012., archived from
[[Link]/courses/cs121/handouts/[Link]]
39. Finkelstein, Gabriel (2013). Emil du Bois-Reymond: Neuroscience, Self, and Society in
Nineteenth-Century Germany. Cambridge; London: The MIT Press. pp. 265–289. ISBN 978-
0262019507.
40. Hilbert, D. (1919–20), Natur und Mathematisches Erkennen: Vorlesungen, gehalten 1919–
1920 in G\"ottingen. Nach der Ausarbeitung von Paul Bernays (Edited and with an English
introduction by David E. Rowe), Basel, Birkh\"auser (1992).
41. Reichenberger, Andrea (31 January 2019). "From Solvability to Formal Decidability:
Revisiting Hilbert's "Non-Ignorabimus" " ([Link]
Journal of Humanistic Mathematics. 9 (1): 49–80. doi:10.5642/jhummath.201901.05 (https://
[Link]/10.5642%2Fjhummath.201901.05). ISSN 2159-8118 ([Link]
n/2159-8118). S2CID 127398451 ([Link]
42. Reid 1996, p. 129.
43. Isaacson 2007:218
44. Sauer 1999; Fölsing 1998; Isaacson 2007:212
45. Isaacson 2007:213
46. Reid 1996, p. 114.
47. Endres, S.; Steiner, F. (2009), "The Berry–Keating operator on and on compact
quantum graphs with general self-adjoint realizations", Journal of Physics A: Mathematical
and Theoretical, 43 (9): 37, arXiv:0912.3183v5 ([Link]
doi:10.1088/1751-8113/43/9/095204 ([Link]
F095204), S2CID 115162684 ([Link]
48. Reid 1996, chap. 13.
49. Sieg 2013, p. 284-285.
50. Rota G.-C. (1997), "Ten lessons I wish I had been taught ([Link]
01/[Link])", Notices of the AMS, 44: 22–25.

Sources

Primary literature in English translation

Ewald, William B., ed. (1996). From Kant to Hilbert: A Source Book in the Foundations of
Mathematics. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
1918. "Axiomatic thought," 1114–1115.
1922. "The new grounding of mathematics: First report," 1115–1133.
 1923. "The logical foundations of mathematics," 1134–1147.
1930. "Logic and the knowledge of nature," 1157–1165.
1931. "The grounding of elementary number theory," 1148–1156.
1904. "On the foundations of logic and arithmetic," 129–138.
1925. "On the infinite," 367–392.
1927. "The foundations of mathematics," with comment by Weyl and Appendix by
Bernays, 464–489.
van Heijenoort, Jean (1967). From Frege to Gödel: A source book in mathematical logic,
1879–1931. Harvard University Press.
Hilbert, David (1950) [1902]. The Foundations of Geometry [Grundlagen der Geometrie] (htt
p://[Link]/files/17384/[Link]) (PDF). Translated by Townsend, E.J.
(2nd ed.). La Salle, IL: Open Court Publishing. Archived ([Link]
228050734/[Link] (PDF) from the original on
28 December 2005.
Hilbert, David (1990) [1971]. Foundations of Geometry [Grundlagen der Geometrie].
Translated by Unger, Leo (2nd English ed.). La Salle, IL: Open Court Publishing. ISBN 978-
0-87548-164-7. "translated from the 10th German edition"
Hilbert, David; Cohn-Vossen, Stephan (1999). Geometry and Imagination. American
Mathematical Society. ISBN 978-0-8218-1998-2. "An accessible set of lectures originally for
the citizens of Göttingen."
Hilbert, David (2004). Hallett, Michael; Majer, Ulrich (eds.). David Hilbert's Lectures on the
Foundations of Mathematics and Physics, 1891–1933. Berlin & Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.
ISBN 978-3-540-64373-9.

Secondary literature
Bertrand, Gabriel (20 December 1943b), "Allocution" ([Link]
698/[Link]), Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des sciences
(in French), 217, Paris: 625–640, available at Gallica. The "Address" of Gabriel Bertrand of
20 December 1943 at the French Academy: he gives biographical sketches of the lives of
recently deceased members, including Pieter Zeeman, David Hilbert and Georges Giraud.
Bottazzini Umberto, 2003. Il flauto di Hilbert. Storia della matematica. UTET, ISBN 88-7750-
852-3
Corry, L., Renn, J., and Stachel, J., 1997, "Belated Decision in the Hilbert-Einstein Priority
Dispute," Science 278: nn-nn.
Corry, Leo (2004). David Hilbert and the Axiomatization of Physics (1898–1918): From
Grundlagen der Geometrie to Grundlagen der Physik. Springer. ISBN 90-481-6719-1.
Dawson, John W. Jr 1997. Logical Dilemmas: The Life and Work of Kurt Gödel. Wellesley
MA: A. K. Peters. ISBN 1-56881-256-6.
Fölsing, Albrecht (1998). Albert Einstein. Penguin.
Grattan-Guinness, Ivor, 2000. The Search for Mathematical Roots 1870–1940. Princeton
Univ. Press.
Gray, Jeremy, 2000. The Hilbert Challenge. ISBN 0-19-850651-1
Mancosu, Paolo (1998). From Brouwer to Hilbert, The Debate on the Foundations of
Mathematics in 1920s. Oxford Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0-19-509631-6.
Mehra, Jagdish, 1974. Einstein, Hilbert, and the Theory of Gravitation. Reidel.
Piergiorgio Odifreddi, 2003. Divertimento Geometrico. Le origini geometriche della logica da
Euclide a Hilbert. Bollati Boringhieri, ISBN 88-339-5714-4. A clear exposition of the "errors"
of Euclid and of the solutions presented in the Grundlagen der Geometrie, with reference to
non-Euclidean geometry.
 Reid, Constance. (1996). Hilbert ([Link]
New York: Springer. ISBN 0-387-94674-8. The definitive English-language biography of
Hilbert.
Rowe, D. E. (1989). "Klein, Hilbert, and the Gottingen Mathematical Tradition". Osiris. 5:
186–213. doi:10.1086/368687 ([Link] S2CID 121068952 (http
s://[Link]/CorpusID:121068952).
Sauer, Tilman (1999). "The relativity of discovery: Hilbert's first note on the foundations of
physics". Arch. Hist. Exact Sci. 53: 529–75. arXiv:physics/9811050 ([Link]
sics/9811050). Bibcode:1998physics..11050S ([Link]
cs..11050S).
Sieg, Wilfried (2013). Hilbert's Programs and Beyond ([Link]
Drwqo-8TkC). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-537222-9.
Sieg, Wilfried, and Ravaglia, Mark, 2005, "Grundlagen der Mathematik" in Grattan-
Guinness, I., ed., Landmark Writings in Western Mathematics. Elsevier: 981–99. (in English)
Thorne, Kip, 1995. Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy, W. W.
Norton & Company; Reprint edition. ISBN 0-393-31276-3.
Georg von Wallwitz: Meine Herren, dies ist keine Badeanstalt. Wie ein Mathematiker das
20. Jahrhundert veränderte. Berenberg Verlag, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-946334-24-8. The
definitive German-language biography of Hilbert.

External links
Hilbert Bernays Project ([Link]
[Link]/~cp/p/hilbertbernays/[Link])
Hilbert's 23 Problems Address ([Link]
ICMM 2014 dedicated to the memory of [Link] ([Link]
Works by David Hilbert ([Link] at Project
Gutenberg
Works by or about David Hilbert ([Link]
A%22Hilbert%2C%20David%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22David%20Hilbert%22%20O
R%20creator%3A%22Hilbert%2C%20David%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22David%20Hilb
ert%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Hilbert%2C%20D%2E%22%20OR%20title%3A%22Dav
id%20Hilbert%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Hilbert%2C%20David%22%20OR%20de
scription%3A%22David%20Hilbert%22%29%20OR%20%28%221862-1943%22%20AND%
20Hilbert%29%29%20AND%20%28-mediatype:software%29) at the Internet Archive
Works by David Hilbert ([Link] at LibriVox (public domain
audiobooks)
Hilbert's radio speech recorded in Königsberg 1930 (in German) ([Link]
Documents/HilbertRadio/HilbertRadio.mp3) Archived ([Link]
172824/[Link] 14 February
2006 at the Wayback Machine, with English translation ([Link]
ts/HilbertRadio/[Link]) Archived ([Link]
p://[Link]/smith/Documents/HilbertRadio/[Link]) 12 November 2020 at the
Wayback Machine
Wolfram MathWorld – Hilbert'Constant ([Link]
l)
David Hilbert ([Link] at the Mathematics Genealogy
Project
O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "David Hilbert" ([Link]
[Link]/Biographies/[Link]), MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St
Andrews
 'From Hilbert's Problems to the Future' ([Link]
[Link]/[Link]?PageId=45&EventId=628), lecture by Professor Robin
Wilson, Gresham College, 27 February 2008 (available in text, audio and video formats).
Newspaper clippings about David Hilbert ([Link]
in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW

Retrieved from "[Link]