The Generality Statement

David Hilbert, the outstanding formalist of Europe, 1862-1943, made this observation: The art of doing mathematics consists in finding that special case which contains all the germs of generality.

I looked for what it was that defined mathematics, whether it was in geometry, symmetry, algebraics, or whether it was in logic, in intuition, or whether it was in an appreciation of beauty. I couldn't find any discipline that exactly and exclusively defined what mathematics was.

My concern was this: is mathematics a natural tool of all form, or not? Clearly if a tool of all form, then it has to be accessible to all form, both consciously and unconsciously.

Whatever mathematics may be, therefore, must be found in this generality:

Form determines function;function alters Form.