For those of you who don’t know (and shame on you if you don’t), David Hilbert was one of the giants of 19th-20th century mathematics. Despite his very English-looking name, he was German by birth and by upbringing and lived almost his entire life in Königsberg and later Göttingen. Although Hilbert wrote instrumental papers in [...]

Norm Geras, whom I usually rely on to write thoughtful exercises in clear thinking, has let me down by praising a review by Marilynne Robinson. It’s not that I disagree with the point that attracted Geras to the review in the first place. Robinson was reviewing Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion for Harper’s, and she [...]