Analytic Proof

Analytic Proof

In mathematical analysis, an analytical proof is a proof of a theorem in analysis that only makes use of methods from analysis, and which does not make use of results from geometry. The term was first used by Bernard Bolzano, who first provided a non-analytic proof of his intermediate value theorem and then, several years later provided proof of the theorem which was free from intuitions concerning lines crossing each other at a point and so he felt happy calling analytic (Bolzano 1817).

Bolzano's philosophical work encouraged a more abstract reading of when a demonstration could be regarded as analytic, where a proof is analytic if it does not go beyond its subject matter (Sebastik 2007). In proof theory, an analytical proof has come to mean a proof whose structure is simple in a special way, due to conditions on the kind of inferences that ensure none of them go beyond what is contained in the assumptions and what is demonstrated.