PROOFCON: Proof in Context
Key data of the project
- Project fund: FWF
- Funding amount: € 327.746,15
- Head of the project: Günther Eder
- Project duration: 09/2924 – 08/2027
- Project team members: –
- Project site: Proof in Context@ PLUS Research
Description of the project
Unlike other sciences, mathematics does not rely on experiments or other empirical procedures to justify its propositions. Instead, its primary means of justification is proof, a form of justification that relies solely on reasoning and is intended to make it clear that the statement being proved is not only true, but necessarily true. However, while mathematicians generally agree on what a proof is when presented with one, it is notoriously difficult to determine exactly what a proof actually is. Towards the end of the 19th century, people began to consider what was essential to a proof, and the first formal systems of logic were developed as a result. Since then, logicians have studied formal proofs as objects in their own right. However, since the beginnings of modern mathematical logic, scholars from various fields have emphasised that there is a significant gap between the formal and informal concepts of proofs that needs to be explained.
