2

One of the famous mathematician David Hilbert quotes:

“Wir müssen wissen. Wir werden wissen."

(We must know. We will know.)

What is the deep meaning of this quotes acording to Sir David Hilbert logics ?

Paul Frost
  • 76,394
  • 12
  • 43
  • 125
jasmine
  • 14,457
  • 3
    I don't really feel like there is a deeper meaning to it -- that we should know everything there is to know about mathematics and, one day, we will learn everything we can. – PrincessEev Jul 25 '20 at 05:31
  • 2
    Was Hilbert a "sir"? – markvs Jul 25 '20 at 05:35
  • 3
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignoramus_et_ignorabimus#Hilbert's_reaction – cqfd Jul 25 '20 at 05:36
  • 1
    sir before name basically used in great scientist for example sir issac newton @JCAA – jasmine Jul 25 '20 at 05:37
  • 1
    Well, the designation 'Sir' is used to show some respect to those great people. In the case of Sir Isaac Newton, he was knighted in 1705, and hence held a position of honor, and thus called 'sir'. – Spectre Jul 25 '20 at 05:42
  • He is a German and not a Brit, @JCAA – Spectre Jul 25 '20 at 05:49
  • No idea whether he was knighted by anyone, but maybe because of his contributions, the math world must have designated him as 'sir.' – Spectre Jul 25 '20 at 05:51
  • @SamRubenAbraham Not that I've heard of. No one refers to Gauss or Euler as "Sir" (and hardly anyone outside of Britain and perhaps the USA refers to Newton as "sir"). –  Jul 25 '20 at 05:55
  • What ? His contributions ? – Spectre Jul 25 '20 at 05:56
  • @SamRubenAbraham No, obviously the informal title. –  Jul 25 '20 at 05:56
  • Oh, 'sir' ? Even I haven't heard of it in the case of David Hilbert. Maybe the asker is a fan of Hilbert..... I guess.... – Spectre Jul 25 '20 at 05:58
  • 4
    "Sir" is used for knights of the realm: for instance Sir James Savile, Sir Geoffrey Boycott, Sir Anthony Robinson, etc. – Angina Seng Jul 25 '20 at 06:00
  • What about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ? – Spectre Jul 25 '20 at 06:02
  • Here's the proof to Isaac Newton being called 'Sir' :https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton – Spectre Jul 25 '20 at 06:07
  • Plus, what do you mean by 'knights of the realm' ? Those from Great Britain? – Spectre Jul 25 '20 at 06:10
  • 3
    Hilbert was no "Sir". A google search for "Sir David Hilbert" gives 10 hits. Doing the same for "Sir Michael Atiyah" gives more than 42000 hits. Also try "Sir William Rowan Hamilton", "Sir Roger Penrose", "Sir Simon Donaldson". Non-British nationals can be honorary British knights and dames, but are not allowed to use the pre-nominal style of "Sir" or "Dame"'. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_honorary_British_knights_and_dames – Paul Frost Jul 25 '20 at 09:55
  • Cross-posted – Pedro Jul 25 '20 at 11:53

1 Answers1

4

That was in Hilbert's radio speech. He wanted to axiomatize the whole mathematics, and believed that every axiomatic system is decidable. So, in particular, every well formulated math problem has a solution. It was before G$\ddot{o}$del.

markvs
  • 19,653
  • 3
    It is also an antithesis to the classic Latin "ignoramus et ignorabimus" which means "we do not know and will not know". This was re-popularized by the German physiologist Emil du Bois-Reymond in 1872 when he gave the address "Über die Grenzen des Naturerkennens" ("The Limits of Science"). – Paul Frost Jul 25 '20 at 10:05
  • 2
    No doubt, Hillbert was talking about mathematics and your answer is absolutely correct. Nevertheless have a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignoramus_et_ignorabimus. For those who understand German: Here is Hilbert's radio speech. Hilbert was born in Königsberg, Germany (since 1946 Kaliningrad, Russia), that is why the video is illustrated by views of the town and paintings of famous people from it. In his speech, addressed to the non-mathematical public, he praises mathematics as the basis for science and engineering. – Paul Frost Jul 25 '20 at 13:05
  • 2
    He ends with "For us [as mathematicians] there is no ignorabimus, and in my opinion also not for science altogether. Instead of the foolish ignorabimus our motto is quite the contrary: Wir müssen wissen, wir werden wissen." – Paul Frost Jul 25 '20 at 13:06
  • That mean this quote is not universally true@PaulFrost – jasmine Jul 25 '20 at 16:21