HILBERT, DAVID. - METAMATHEMATICS.

Die logischen Grundlagen der Mathematik.

Berlin, Julius Springer, 1923. 8vo. Full cloth. Spine gone. In: "Mathematische Annalen begründet durch Alfred Clebsch und Carl Neumann.", 88. Bd. (4),312 pp. (Entire volume offered). Hilbert's paper: pp. 151-165. Internally clean and fine.

First edition as a continuation of his paper from 1922 "Neubegründung der Mathematik. Erste Mitteilung".
"This articlee, delivered as a lecture to the deutsche Naturforscher Gesellschaft in Leipzig, September 1922, is a sequel to (neubegründung...), and brings Hilbert's proof theory to maturity. Hilbert here introduces several technical refinements and clarification to his theory. Specifically: (i) he improves the formal system by adding a special sign for formal negation...(ii) he refines his account of the distinction between formal language and the metalanguage....(iii) he outlines a consistency proof for an elementary, quantifier-free formal system of number-theory. (iv) he begins to extend his proof theory to analysis and set theory....sketches a strategy for proving the consistency of a version of Zermel's axiom of choice for real numbers...(etc. etc). (William Ewald in from Kant to Hilbert, vol. II, pp.1134-35).

Order-nr.: 47067