Yesterday I started reading the book Proof as Moral Obligation by Douglas Wilson. I did not know what to expect when I started reading it, but I was a Geometry teacher for 25 years, so I have a natural affinity for proofs; therefore I started reading.
I would give you a summary, but I am not sure that I would do it justice. The essential premise, though, is that when one proves something, there is an included obligation for the one who has been shown that proof. This occurs, not in the experience of the presentation of a proof or its arguments, but when the arguments of that proof are coherent and consistent with the actual world and the listener has followed that coherence and consistence. In other words, when someone has proved something to someone else they are then obliged to believe the thing proved.
I was especially intrigued in the chapters dealing with the humility of believing and the arrogance of not believing anything. That to say that one can't actually know know something, the question becomes, "Well... do you know that?" This is a question that must then be answered. Pair this with the idea that there really isn't anything that can be known absolutely, but there are things that we can absolutely know.
I, of course, am not doing any of these thoughts any justice. I guess that is why I would recommend that you read this book. It only took me about an hour to complete. I started it last night, made my way halfway through it, and completed it just now after school was dismissed.
This book is currently free on Amazon. I encourage you to snag it for you Kindle while this deal lasts.
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