All Questions
6 questions
150
votes
45
answers
30k
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Nontrivial theorems with trivial proofs
A while back I saw posted on someone's office door a statement attributed to some famous person, saying that it is an instance of the callousness of youth to think that a theorem is trivial because ...
60
votes
15
answers
11k
views
Abstract thought vs calculation
Jeremy Avigad and Erich Reck claim that one factor leading to abstract mathematics in the late 19th century (as opposed to concrete mathematics or hard analysis) was the use of more abstract notions ...
51
votes
30
answers
8k
views
Taking a theorem as a definition and proving the original definition as a theorem
Gian-Carlo Rota's famous 1991 essay, "The pernicious influence of mathematics upon philosophy" contains the following passage:
Perform the following thought experiment. Suppose that you are ...
45
votes
8
answers
10k
views
What is Realistic Mathematics?
This post is partially about opinions and partially about more precise mathematical questions. Most of this post is not as formal as a precise mathematical question. However, I hope that most readers ...
- 25.5k
39
votes
10
answers
4k
views
Believing the Conjectures
In Believing the axioms (I and II), Penelope Maddy proposes five "rules of thumb" that she then uses to justify large cardinal axioms in set theory. These extrinsic rules are modeled after the ...
26
votes
9
answers
8k
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Why are proofs so valuable, although we do not know that our axiom system is consistent? [closed]
As a person who has been spending significant time to learn mathematics, I have to admit that I sometimes find the fact uncovered by Godel very upsetting: we never can know that our axiom system is ...