Mathematical practice comprises the working practices of professional mathematicians: selecting theorems to prove, using informal notations to persuade themselves and others that various steps in the final proof are convincing, and seeking peer review and publication, as opposed to the end result of proven and published theorems.
Philip Kitcher has proposed a more formal definition of a mathematical practice, as a quintuple. His intention was primarily to document mathematical practice through its historical changes.[2]
- ^ GER Lloyd (2009), "What was mathematics in the ancient world? Greek and Chinese perspectives", The Oxford Handbook of the History of Mathematics, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 12, ISBN 9780199213122
- ^ Ernest, Paul (1998). Social Constructivism as a Philosophy of Mathematics. SUNY Press. p. 139. ISBN 9780791435885. Retrieved 19 September 2018.