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Re: A question of logical terminology

Subject: Re: A question of logical terminology
From: Stephen Montgomery-Smith
Date: Sun, 31 Dec 2006 18:02:27 GMT
Newsgroups: sci.math, sci.logic
google03@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Suppose P is a proof of the proposition q. Is there a standard name for
q as a function of P?

For example, in the special case that the proof P consists of p, p->q,
and an application of modus ponens to derive q, then q is called the
'consequent'.

Is there a standard word for the thing that a more general proof
proves?

(I'm just trying to give a function in a computer program a sensible
name. Things like 'target', 'result, 'goal' or 'end' just don't seem
descriptive enough to me...)


If you hear mathematicians congratulating one another, they say "great result" or "great theorem." Thus it looks like there isn't a word that does exactly what you want it to do.

Even the ancients don't seem to have had a good word for this, since we are forced to use the phrase Q.E.D., "quod erat demonstrandum," or "which was to be demonstrated."

Stephen

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