One can measure the importance of a scientific work by the number of earlier publications rendered superfluous by it.
Meaning of the quote
The more a new scientific work makes previous studies and research unnecessary, the more important and groundbreaking that new work is. The quote suggests that we can judge how significant a scientific discovery or theory is by how much it replaces or makes obsolete the earlier work in that field. The more it renders prior publications useless, the more valuable and influential the new scientific work is.
About David Hilbert
David Hilbert was a renowned German mathematician and philosopher who made groundbreaking contributions to various fields, including invariant theory, the foundations of geometry, and the foundations of mathematics. He presented a collection of problems that set the course for mathematical research in the 20th century.
More quotes from David Hilbert
Mathematical science is in my opinion an indivisible whole, an organism whose vitality is conditioned upon the connection of its parts.
German mathematician (1862-1943)
How thoroughly it is ingrained in mathematical science that every real advance goes hand in hand with the invention of sharper tools and simpler methods which, at the same time, assist in understanding earlier theories and in casting aside some more complicated developments.
German mathematician (1862-1943)
Galileo was no idiot. Only an idiot could believe that science requires martyrdom – that may be necessary in religion, but in time a scientific result will establish itself.
German mathematician (1862-1943)
One can measure the importance of a scientific work by the number of earlier publications rendered superfluous by it.
German mathematician (1862-1943)
If I were to awaken after having slept for a thousand years, my first question would be: Has the Riemann hypothesis been proven?
German mathematician (1862-1943)
The infinite! No other question has ever moved so profoundly the spirit of man.
German mathematician (1862-1943)
If one were to bring ten of the wisest men in the world together and ask them what was the most stupid thing in existence, they would not be able to discover anything so stupid as astrology.
German mathematician (1862-1943)
No one shall expel us from the paradise that Cantor has created for us.
German mathematician (1862-1943)
Mathematics knows no races or geographic boundaries; for mathematics, the cultural world is one country.
German mathematician (1862-1943)
Mathematics is a game played according to certain simple rules with meaningless marks on paper.
German mathematician (1862-1943)
A mathematical theory is not to be considered complete until you have made it so clear that you can explain it to the first man whom you meet on the street.
German mathematician (1862-1943)
The art of doing mathematics consists in finding that special case which contains all the germs of generality.
German mathematician (1862-1943)
No other question has ever moved so profoundly the spirit of man; no other idea has so fruitfully stimulated his intellect; yet no other concept stands in greater need of clarification than that of the infinite.
German mathematician (1862-1943)
The further a mathematical theory is developed, the more harmoniously and uniformly does its construction proceed, and unsuspected relations are disclosed between hitherto separated branches of the science.
German mathematician (1862-1943)
Physics is becoming too difficult for the physicists.
German mathematician (1862-1943)
He who seeks for methods without having a definite problem in mind seeks in the most part in vain.
German mathematician (1862-1943)