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The Empiricist Roots of Hilbert’s Axiomatic Approach

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Part of the book series: Synthese Library ((SYLI,volume 292))

Abstract

Hilbert’s work on logic and proof theory—among the latest stages in his long and fruitful scientific career—appeared almost two decades after the publication of the epoch-making Grundlagen der Geometrie. In spite of the time span separating these two phases of his intellectual development, and given the centrality of the axiomatic approach to both, one might tend to consider the two as different manifestations of one and the same underlying conception. In particular, one runs the risk of examining the Grundlagen as an early expression of the ideas developed in Hilbert’s work on proof theory. A close historical examination of these works, however, brings to light important differences between them.

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Corry, L. (2000). The Empiricist Roots of Hilbert’s Axiomatic Approach. In: Hendricks, V.F., Pedersen, S.A., Jørgensen, K.F. (eds) Proof Theory. Synthese Library, vol 292. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2796-9_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2796-9_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-5553-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-2796-9

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