From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.science.mathematics.categories/5981 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: John Baez Newsgroups: gmane.science.mathematics.categories Subject: Are mathematical proofs incomparable with proofs in other disciplines? Date: Fri, 9 Jul 2010 08:29:31 -0700 Message-ID: Reply-To: John Baez NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1278765749 3457 80.91.229.12 (10 Jul 2010 12:42:29 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 10 Jul 2010 12:42:29 +0000 (UTC) To: categories Original-X-From: categories@mta.ca Sat Jul 10 14:42:27 2010 Return-path: Envelope-to: gsmc-categories@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from mailserv.mta.ca ([138.73.1.1]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OXZNy-00011j-2t for gsmc-categories@m.gmane.org; Sat, 10 Jul 2010 14:42:26 +0200 Original-Received: from Majordom by mailserv.mta.ca with local (Exim 4.61) (envelope-from ) id 1OXYxT-0003oG-RG for categories-list@mta.ca; Sat, 10 Jul 2010 09:15:03 -0300 Original-Sender: categories@mta.ca Precedence: bulk Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.science.mathematics.categories:5981 Archived-At: Vaughan writes: 1. Is mathematical proof so different from say legal proof that the two > notions should be listed on a disambiguation page as being unrelated > meanings of the same word, or should they be treated as essentially the s= ame > notion modulo provenance of evidence and strictness of sufficiency, both > falling under the definition "sufficient evidence of the truth of a > proposition." > Geoffrey Lloyd's book "Adversaries and Authorities: Investigations into Ancient Greek and Chinese Science" has a discussion of how the Greek legal system influenced Greek concepts of rationality. While I haven't read it i= n a long while, I think it makes a good case that the concepts of "proof" in Western law, medicine, science, and mathematics are deeply intertwined. It's very useful to compare Greece with China on these issues. You could get a taste of it here: http://books.google.com/books?id=3D3820gVEQu1AC&printsec=3Dfrontcover&dq=3D= adversaries+and+authorities&source=3Dbl&ots=3DZ1qCx04ANb&sig=3DMROclDNl8-wj= DKFi77o4z8Cs1_s&hl=3Den&ei=3Dpz03TJLUHobEsAPglo1S&sa=3DX&oi=3Dbook_result&c= t=3Dresult&resnum=3D1&ved=3D0CBcQ6AEwAA#v=3Donepage&q=3Dproof&f=3Dfalse but the whole book is fascinating. It would also make a good citation - an= d it contains many further references. Best, jb [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]