On correctness of mathematical texts from a logical and practical point of view

Abstract

Formalizing mathematical argument is a fascinating activity in itself and (we hope!) also bears important practical applications. While traditional proof theory investigates deducibility of an individual statement from a collection of premises, a mathematical proof, with its structure and continuity, can hardly be presented as a single sequent or a set of logical formulas. What is called "mathematical text", as used in mathematical practice through the ages, seems to be more appropriate. However, no commonly adopted formal notion of mathematical text has emerged so far. In this paper, we propose a formalism which aims to reflect natural (human) style and structure of mathematical argument, yet to be appropriate for automated processing: principally, verification of its correctness (we consciously use the word rather than "soundness" or "validity"). We consider mathematical texts that are formalized in the ForTheL language (brief description of which is also given) and we formulate a point of view on what a correct mathematical text might be. Logical notion of correctness is formalized with the help of a calculus. Practically, these ideas, methods and algorithms are implemented in a proof assistant called SAD. We give a short description of SAD and a series of examples showing what can be done with it. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.