Hilbert’s "World Equations" and His Vision of a Unified Science

Abstract

In the history of unified field theory, many contributors may be identified, Goldstein and Ritter (2003), Goenner (2004) among them certainly, and perhaps foremost, Einstein. Hilbert’s place in the history of the unified field theory program is also well recognized (see, e.g., the discussion of his work in Vizgin’s study, Vizgin (1994)). But we tend to view the history of physics in which Einstein was involved through that scholarship which has focussed exclusively, or at least predominantly, on Einstein’s work as such. For the case of Einstein’s “later journey,” we believe that many physicists as well as historians would subscribe to Pais’s verdict that “his work on unification was probably all in vain” (Pais 1982, p. 329). The dismissal of Einstein’s efforts over three decades is to some extent supported by Einstein’s own self-image, in his later years, as the “lonesome outsider” working without real appreciation in his golden Princeton cage. Einstein was an original thinker and an influential voice in the debate, and for this reason understanding Einstein’s obsession with the problem of a unified field theory over the last thirty years of his life presents as much of a challenge to the historian as understanding the achievements of his early work.