IX
The end of Hilbert's memoir is altogether enigmatic and I shall not lay stress upon it. Contradictions accumulate; we feel that the author is dimly conscious of the petitio principii he has committed, and that he seeks vainly to patch up the holes in his argument.
What does this mean? At the point of proving that the definition of the whole number by the assumption of complete induction implies no contradiction, Hilbert withdraws as Russell and Couturat withdrew, because the difficulty is too great.
X
Geometry
Geometry, says M. Couturat, is a vast body of doctrine wherein the principle of complete induction does not enter. That is true in a certain measure; we can not say it is entirely absent, but it enters very slightly. If we refer to the Rational Geometry of Dr. Halsted (New York, John Wiley and Sons, 1904) built up in accordance with the principles of Hilbert, we see the principle of induction enter for the first time on page 114 (unless I have made an oversight, which is quite possible).[14]
So geometry, which only a few years ago seemed the domain where the reign of intuition was uncontested, is to-day the realm where the logicians seem to triumph. Nothing could better measure the importance of the geometric works of Hilbert and the profound impress they have left on our conceptions.
But be not deceived. What is after all the fundamental theorem of geometry? It is that the assumptions of geometry imply no contradiction, and this we can not prove without the principle of induction.
How does Hilbert demonstrate this essential point? By leaning upon analysis and through it upon arithmetic and through it upon the principle of induction.