Bridging the gap between argumentation theory and the philosophy of mathematics

Alison Pease (Lead / Corresponding author), Alan Smaill, Simon Colton, John Lee

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    12 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    We argue that there are mutually beneficial connections to be made between ideas in argumentation theory and the philosophy of mathematics, and that these connections can be suggested via the process of producing computational models of theories in these domains. We discuss Lakatos’s work (Proofs and Refutations, 1976) in which he championed the informal nature of mathematics, and our computational representation of his theory. In particular, we outline our representation of Cauchy’s proof of Euler’s conjecture, in which we use work by Haggith on argumentation structures, and identify connections between these structures and Lakatos’s methods
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)111-135
    Number of pages25
    JournalFoundations of Science
    Volume14
    Issue number1-2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Mar 2009

    Keywords

    • Lakatos
    • Argumentation
    • Philosophy of mathematics
    • Computational model
    • Theory refinement

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