HILBERT, DAVID.

Die Grundlagen der Physik.

Julius Springer, Berlin 1924. 8vo. Bound with the original front wrapper in contemporary dark blue full cloth with gilt lettering to spine. In "Mathematische Annalen, 92 Band, 1924." Light writing in pencil to title page, other fine and clean throughout. [Hilbert:] 1-32 pp. [Entire volume: (2), 316 pp.].

First printing of Hilbert's important contribution to the unification of gravitational theory and electrodynamics. Hilbert stated that the present paper essentially was a reprint with insignificant alterations. This is, however, not entirely true as several Hilbert biographers have pointed out, that this version contain "major conceptual adjustments and a recognition of its deductive structure" (Renn, The Genesis of General Relativity, p.930).

"...it was Hilbert's aim to give not just a theory of gravitation but an axiomatic theory of the world. This lends an exalted quality to his paper, from the title, 'Die Grundlagen der Physik', The Foundations of Physics, to the concluding paragraph, in which he expressed his conviction that his fundamental equations would eventually solve the riddles of atomic structure" (Pais: Subtle is the Lord, pp. 257-258).
In Hilbert's 1915-paper he falsly believed that electromagnetism was essentially a gravitational phenomenon. "These and other errors are expurgated in an article Hilbert wrote in 1924 [the present paper]. It is again entitled 'Die Grundlagen der Physik' and contains a synopsis of his 1915 paper and a sequel to it written a year later. Hilbert's collected works, each volume of which contains a preface by Hilbert himself, does not include these two early papers, but only the one of 1924" (Pais, Subtle is the Lord…, p. 258)

Order-nr.: 45200