Hilbert's ‘<i>Verunglückter Beweis</i>’, the first epsilon theorem, and consistency proofs
Hilbert's ‘<i>Verunglückter Beweis</i>’, the first epsilon theorem, and consistency proofs
In the 1920s, Ackermann and von Neumann, in pursuit of Hilbert's Programme, were working on consistency proofs for arithmetical systems. One proposed method of giving such proofs is Hilbert's epsilon-substitution method. There was, however, a second approach which was not reflected in the publications of the Hilbert school in the …