Go forth and multiply! Imperatives in mathematical proofs

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• Fenner Tanswell (University of Oxford)
• Tuesday 18 July 2017, 15:30-16:00
• Seminar Room 2, Newton Institute.

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BPR - Big proof

In this talk I will emphasise the activity of proving in securing mathematical knowledge. I will be drawing on observations of the language used in mathematical proofs to argue that the proofs themselves can contain a mix of propositional and imperatival content, very much in the style of a recipe or set of instructions for other mathematicians to carry out the same proving activity. This also applies to diagrams in proofs, which I shall compare to instructions for LEGO models and Ikea furniture. The idea is that this will then provide a natural picture of informal proofs and their epistemic significance, fitting in with modern approaches in epistemology, especially on knowledge-how and virtue epistemology.

This talk is part of the Isaac Newton Institute Seminar Series series.

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