Formal Theories, Systems and Proofs
In mathematical logic, a formal theory is a set of sentences expressed in a formal language.
A formal system (also called a logical calculus, or a logical system) consists of a formal language together with a deductive apparatus (also called a deductive system). The deductive apparatus may consist of a set of transformation rules which may be interpreted as valid rules of inference or a set of axioms, or have both. A formal system is used to derive one expression from one or more other expressions. Although a formal language can be identified with its formulas, a formal system cannot be likewise identified by its theorems. Two formal systems and may have all the same theorems and yet differ in some significant proof-theoretic way (a formula A may be a syntactic consequence of a formula B in one but not another for instance).
A formal proof or derivation is a finite sequence of well-formed formulas (which may be interpreted as propositions) each of which is an axiom or follows from the preceding formulas in the sequence by a rule of inference. The last sentence in the sequence is a theorem of a formal system. Formal proofs are useful because their theorems can be interpreted as true propositions.
Read more about this topic: Formal Language, Applications
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“Then the justice,
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Full of wise saws and modern instances;
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—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
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“To invent without scruple a new principle to every new phenomenon, instead of adapting it to the old; to overload our hypothesis with a variety of this kind, are certain proofs that none of these principles is the just one, and that we only desire, by a number of falsehoods, to cover our ignorance of the truth.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)