ABSTRACT
This chapter describes two purported virtues of mathematical knowledge—reliability and autonomy—and discusses how each virtue reduces the need for mathematicians to engage in sourcing when evaluating mathematical statements or proofs. Mathematical results ostensibly have the attributes because they are established by deductive justifications or proofs. A mathematical statement is an assertion about mathematical objects that permits a truth-value. Mathematicians have greater confidence in papers that underwent a peer-review process and were published in journals. Mathematicians have greater confidence in results that were published in higher quality journals. Mathematicians are more likely to believe that a mathematical statement is true when it was proven by a famous mathematician, particularly a famous mathematician with a reputation for doing reliable work. Mathematics is often viewed as a discipline satisfying an egalitarian ideal in which anyone can receive credit for solving a problem or proving a theorem, provided that her work is correct.
