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by jeffreyrogers·11y ago·view on hn ↗
Hilbert wanted to establish mathematics on a firm foundation because a number of paradoxes suggested that the current foundations was faulty (Russell's paradox being one, there are others that I can't remember as well).

Basically Hilbert wanted to find a list of axioms from which all of mathematics could be derived and then prove that these axioms were consistent, i.e., that you can't create two contradicting statements from them.

But then Gödel showed with his incompleteness theorems that this wasn't possible.

So I guess the author was suggesting that biology have a firm, axiomatic basis?

1 comments
The reference to Grothendieck and Hilbert don't seem to be about establishing something like an 'axiomatic basis', but about having a leader who can organize a platform of modernization in the field. They both lead programs. That's about as far as the thinking goes on that one, I suspect.