Talk:David Hilbert

message: ARCHIVED: May 7, 2009 Editing session Hilbert/Physics/Relativity with  Jwy, Salix, Wvbailey, Pie are round, concluded with the revision of a paragraph under category "Physics" concerning Einstein, Hilbert, and the 1915 development of the field equations of General Relativity. --Pie are round (talk) 18:51, 7 May 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Untitled

message: This claim, previously present on this page, is obviously false:
: 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.
If we take the axiomatic system, and extend it by adding a single new axiom, which says that the logical proposition is true, then the extended system immediately proves the logical proposition in question, directly from the new axiom. The extended system may have become inconsistent, but in that case it proves every proposition, including the one under question.
When we do this, a new Goedel sentence can be formed in the extended system, which in its turn cannot be proven within the extended system (but is provable in an infinitude of other, yet-more-extended systems). And so on ad infinitum.
I believe the correction I just made in the page is strictly correct, but would like checking by a professional mathematician:
: 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.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2403:5808:B368:0:6D2F:CF23:9832:A61B (talk) 03:04, 30 September 2022 (UTC)
thread_title: Goedel

message: === Often accused ===
Hilbert was often accused of being a *** by the Nazis, because of his name "David". 
He seems to acquired the name from Lutheran ancestors, who often used 
Hebrew names.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.169.200.201 (talk) 08:18, 5 May 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Jewish?  

message: Hilbert was often accused of being a *** by the Nazis, because of his name "David". 
He seems to acquired the name from Lutheran ancestors, who often used 
Hebrew names.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.169.200.201 (talk) 08:18, 5 May 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Often accused 

message: It seems that emitting his ancestry and speaking about "Hebrew names" without giving any proof, the interest in Greek Philosophy and Thimaeos in particular, a central topic studied by the first and second generation of assimilated Jews in Germany, raises the suspicion that actually Hilbert (and Heisenberg !) where actually of self-denied Jewish descent. פשוט pashute ♫ (talk) 18:02, 12 August 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Early accounts and connections 

message: Numerous wiki pages are assorted with an allegation that Hilbert got angry when he heard of Goedel's work.  The main source for this seems to be the somewhat sensationalistic biography by Reed.  Such an allegation is not very informative, and I suggest we delete it thoughout.  It is particularly irrelevant in the context of the debate against Brouwer, and gives the impression of a gleeful editor siding with Brouwer propagating this information throughout Hilbert-related pages.  Tkuvho (talk) 12:33, 5 May 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: There is a little bit of research on Hilbert's reactions here. 69.111.194.167 (talk) 03:57, 28 April 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Indeed, the discussion there reveals that the only source for the alleged anger is Reed's personal recollection of a conversionation with... Bernays.  Reed's sensationalistic dramatisations have no respectable source and should be deleted.  Please log in and you agree we can delete this unreliable material.  Tkuvho (talk) 04:05, 28 April 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Hilbert's alleged anger 

message: "the first of two children and only son of Otto and Maria Therese (Erdtmann) Hilbert"
OK what is that supposed to be? Why is it significant that the second child was a female, is it that the Hilberts only had one 'good one'?
Ridiculous sentence.
89.241.33.79 (talk) 21:27, 17 October 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Dunno, making the change.  A13ean (talk) 21:37, 17 October 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: It's a very common form in encyclopedic entries :P Jorgen W (talk) 00:43, 18 October 2011 (UTC)

text: I assume someone paraphrased a very old biography without thinking about it.  a13ean (talk) 16:50, 1 June 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree with  here. There is nothing wrong with that statement. Logically, if he is the only son of a couple with two children, the other is female. Shrugs. Nerd271 (talk) 23:16, 26 July 2019 (UTC)
thread_title: Strange gender issue in the introduction??

message: "Ignorabimus" is translated as "we cannot know" but it means "we will not know".  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.27.11.202 (talk) 13:37, 5 May 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: As Wikipedia editors, we do not do our own direct translations nor do we attempt to correct what we might think of as common misunderstandings. In order to bring up this view of Hilbert's quote, you must find and cite a reliable secondary source that discusses this issue. We can then point to and possibly explain (but not amplify) this point of view. Material that is not grounded in good references is subject to being reverted; which might seem like an unfair and somewhat nasty procedure, but it is how we keep Wikipedia from degenerating into a collection of personal blogs. Bill Cherowitzo  (talk) 18:46, 30 April 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: The English text is a literal translation of the German text. There is no mention of educational ideals or Humboldt in either of them. Both convey exactly the same nuances. (However, I cannot assess the Latin text.) - Jochen Burghardt (talk) 21:49, 30 April 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: I find it hard to believe that they "both convey exactly the same nuances" or even how one would confirm that.  But it doesn't matter for the immediate discussion. --John (User:Jwy/talk) 00:00, 1 May 2016 (UTC)

text: I would suggest you channel your energy, perhaps, into expanding the article itself with further information (from reliable sources) about how Hilbert epitomizes "German Science" as you describe.  A footnotes to translations won't do this justice anyway!  --John (User:Jwy/talk) 00:00, 1 May 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Ignorabimus 

message: I've removed one of the references for Hilbert's atheism as the quote appears to be a response to Kroenecker's "God invented integers" approach, not a statement of Hilbert's more general religious stance - and is a primary source.  The remaining reference is a bit dubious.  Most of the references in it are from Wikipedia and there is no reference for the atheism statement.  If it were "famously atheist," we should be able to find a better reference.  --John (User:Jwy/talk) 19:07, 25 July 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: The two references just added have the same issue.  They discuss Hilbert's refusal to include God in his discussion of mathematics (and geometry), but do not indicate he did not believe in God. --John (User:Jwy/talk) 20:16, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

text: Only one of the four quotes you list indicate explicitly that Hilbert was an atheist.  The statement needs to be more explicit in the sources.  I could argue against the conclusions you derive from them, but since since the conclusions are not explicit in the source, they are original research and should not be included here.
Alright, I made a mistake by labeling him an atheist considering two of those sources are considered "original research". After finding an another source and based on his other statements, I think it's safest to say that he was an agnostic. I'll leave it as that. Ninmacer20 (talk) 02:03, 26 July 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Atheism 

message: I would like to know more about Hilbert's son's mental "illness." It sounds like his son was mentally handicapped which I don't think is considered mental illness.
The whole phrasing and description seems imprecise and awkward and I think could be improved if more information is available.
Hilbert was a great man and I take his biography seriously -- please help with this.--Jrm2007 (talk) 04:30, 4 March 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Hilbert's Son's Mental Illness 

message: pls? i shouldn't even have to ask, given what i've done and the reliance on his work. i'd be nowhere if roweis didn't make the method, if david hilbert didn't study the peano curve/arithmetic, if hermann minkowski didn't study the geometry of numbers.
hilbert and minkowski must go down as THE MOST influential mathematicians of the 19th and 20th centuries. can't see how the generality of their work, especially with the unbelievable geometric interpretations, this isn't true.
just sayin  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.3.213.121 (talk) 04:52, 27 January 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  changing "one of the most influential and universal mathematicians of the 19th and early 20th centuries." to ",along with Hermann Minkowski, is the most influential and universal... " 

message: Why is there a whole page devoted to the Entscheidungsproblem and then no mention of it on here? He is the person directly related to that said thing. I would have thought that a large amount of people only know of him because of the Entscheidungsproblem - especially within the computer science community.--81.103.229.191 (talk) 18:56, 21 April 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: hi, this is a fair point and i hope someone else will add more about it. however i wanted to take this time to inform you about the controversy surrounding some of Hilbert's best work, given it implicitly accommodates Cantor's work. if you read Controversy over Cantor's theory, you'll see that many people were upset. even though those (like Kronecker and Poincare) who refuted Georg Cantor's theory were inferior mathematicians to Hilbert, there are many so-called mathematicians today chasing the dead ends they set out. it has snowballed because of the persistence of Foundational crisis in Mathematics. i agree there should be more, but we're going to have to wait until Hilbert's work is appreciated the way it should be. along with Hermann Minkowski, Constantin Carathéodory and Andrey Kolmogorov, David Hilbert reigns as one of, if not THE, premier mathematician of his era.
174.3.155.181 (talk) 00:35, 27 April 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Entscheidungsproblem? 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: I think that a link may be add to the page Geometry and the Imagination.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by P. Potiron (talk • contribs) 22:00, 27 November 2017 (UTC)
replies: text: I put the link in the See also section since it didn't seem to fit anywhere else. This can be lifted into the article if an appropriate sentence or two can be crafted. --Bill Cherowitzo  (talk) 23:06, 27 November 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Bibliography 

message: There are about 50 kilometers between Znamensk and Kaliningrad.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 31.53.52.233 (talk) 07:11, 20 September 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: What is your point? Hrodvarsson (talk) 21:18, 20 September 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: Hilbert is said to have been born in both.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 31.53.52.233 (talk) 14:20, 25 September 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: It is unclear whether Hilbert was born in Königsberg  (today called Kaliningrad) or Wehlau (Znamensk), so the article mentions both possibilities.  Yes, they are about 50 km apart.  Certes (talk) 15:19, 25 September 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  50 kilometers 

message: This article does not appear to mention Hilbert's correspondence with Einstein. Vorbee (talk) 09:11, 24 January 2019 (UTC)
replies: text: It seems that the German article on Hilbert doesn't either. Conversely, correspondence with Hilbert is mentioned neither in the English nor the German article on Einstein. - Do you have some source? - Jochen Burghardt (talk) 11:48, 24 January 2019 (UTC)
thread_title: Correspondence with Einstein

message: The "distinction between mathematics and metamathematics" isn't a major innovation by Hilbert. In particular, the cited source doesn't claim Hilbert invented it. The distinction between physics and metaphysics, wherever you want to draw it, was already of long standing in Hilbert's time. These are my reasons for removing this dubious assertion from the lead, where it is clearly being given too much importance. Eleuther (talk) 07:34, 30 October 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Metamathematics