Hilbert’s problems, Kant, and decidability
I show on the basis of unpublished sources how Hilbert's conviction of the solvability of all mathematical problems originated from an engagement with Kant's philosophy of mathematics. Furthermore, I consider other sense of the "solvability" or "decidability" of mathematical problems which Hilbert thought about later: decidability in finitely many steps, which is an issue Hilbert inherited from Kronecker, "finitistic decidability" which Hilbert develops by reflecting on Kronecker's methodological strictures, and finally the decision-problem as raised by Behmann in the 1920s. I argue that these different preoccupations have different historical and biographical roots, and should also be kept conceptually distinct.
Authors
- Moritz Bodner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1670-5254)
Institutions
- University of Vienna (AT)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Archive for History of Exact Sciences
- Published
- 2025-08-11
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s00407-025-00350-y
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- History and Theory of Mathematics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 28.58
Funders
- Universität Wien
- European Research Council