Abstract not found

1. INTRODUCTION. For geometers, Hilbert’s influential work on the foundations of geometry is important. For analysts, Hilbert’s theory of integral equations is just as important. But the address “Mathematische Probleme ” [37] that David Hilbert (1862– 1943) delivered at the second International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) in Paris has tremendous importance for all mathematicians. Moreover, a substantial part of

ion in itself is not the goal: for Whitehead [117]"it is the large generalisation, limited by a happy particularity, which is the fruitful conception." As an example consider the theorem in ring theory, which states that if R is a ring, f(x) is a polynomial over R and f(r) = 0 for every element of r of R then R is commutative. Special cases of this, for example f(x) is x 2 \Gamma x or x 3 \Gamma x, can be given a first order proof in a few lines of symbol manipulation. The usual proof of the general result [20] (which takes a semester's postgraduate course to develop from scratch) is a corollary of other results: we prove that rings satisfying the condition are semi-simple artinian, apply a theorem which shows that all such rings are matrix rings over division rings, and eventually obtain the result by showing that all finite division rings are fields, and hence commutative. This displays von Neumann's architectural qualities: it is "deep" in a way in which the symbol manipulati...