ABSTRACT
[There is an underlying] formalist dogma that the only function of proof is that of verification and that there can be no conviction without deductive proof. If this philosophical dogma goes unchallenged, the critic of the traditional approach to the teaching of proof in school geometry appears to be advocating a compromise in quality: he is a sort of pedagogic opportunist, who wants to offer the student less than the ‘real thing/The issue then, is not, what is the best way to teach proof, but what are the different roles and functions of proof in mathematics
