The History of Mathematical Proof in Ancient Traditions

(Elle) #1

64 karine chemla


Such are some of the general issues that emerged from our histori-
cal analysis of ancient practices of proofs. As such, they appear to me to
provide useful directions of research if we are to develop more generally a
genuinely historical approach to the activity of proving and understand the
motley practices of mathematical proofs as such. What results can these
issues yield for the study of modern proofs? Let this task constitute our
f u t u r e e n d e a v o u r.

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