The Philosophy of Mathematics Education
Above argument (the ultimate irreducibility of assumptions on pain of a vicious circle)
Applies equally to logic. Thus mathematical truth depends on essential logical as well as
mathematical assumptions.
It is not possible to simply append all the assumptions of logic to the set of mathematical assumptions, following the ‘if-thenist’ hypothetico-deductive strategy. For logic provides the canons of correct inference with which the theorems of mathematical are derived. Loading all logical and mathematical assumptions into the ‘hypothetico’ part leaves no basis for the ‘dedactive’ part of the method. Deduction concerns ‘correct infernce’, and this in turn is based on the notion of truth (the preservation of truth value). But what then is the foundation of logical truth? It cannot rest on pain of a vicious circle, so it must be assumed. But any assumption without a firm foundation whether it be derived through intuition, convention, meaning or whatever, is fallible.