Congratulations to Zoe Ashton on her Ph.D.

July 9, 2024

Congratulations to Zoe Ashton on her Ph.D.

Zoe Ashton

Zoe Ashton has successfully defended her dissertation, "A Social Epistemological Approach to Mathematical Rigor."   Her advisor was Stewart Shapiro.

Zoe's dissertation concerns the nature of mathematical rigor. She argues that the standard view of rigor based on formalizability fails to make sense of mathematical practice. She developed a social account of rigor motivated by the tagline "a proof is what convinces." She also uses her account to explore instances of epistemic injustice relating to rigor evaluations. 

In addition to her studies in Philosophy, Zoe pursued a dual degree and will also be awarded a Master's degree in Statistics.