Mathematical Proofs at a Crossroad? [chapter]

Cristian S. Calude, Solomon Marcus
2004 Lecture Notes in Computer Science  
For more than 2000 years, from Pythagoras and Euclid to Hilbert and Bourbaki, mathematical proofs were essentially based on axiomatic-deductive reasoning. In the last decades, the increasing length and complexity of many mathematical proofs led to the expansion of some empirical, experimental, psychological and social aspects, yesterday only marginal, but now changing radically the very essence of proof. In this paper, we try to organize this evolution, to distinguish its different steps and
more » ... ects, and to evaluate its advantages and shortcomings. Axiomatic-deductive proofs are not a posteriori work, a luxury we can marginalize nor are computer-assisted proofs bad mathematics. There is hope for integration!
doi:10.1007/978-3-540-27812-2_2 fatcat:5dzfdx5ppfghlkjglfgnbkq5gu