Wittgenstein on Inductive Proofs

Abstract

This paper presents a reconstruction of Wittgenstein’s treatment of inductiveproofs. The philosopher repeatedly talks about separating “what the proof actuallyshows” from something he calls pejoratively the “prose”. Our proposal is a boldone: we present a new calculus, the “horizontal calculus” which would preciselyembody the mathematical content of this kind of proof according to the philosopher.