Are there any exceptions?
I was thinking proof by contradiction i.e. define $\langle f,g\rangle\ \neq0$ for two orthogonal elements of the product space, but positive definiteness would require one of the two elements to be zero.
EDIT: I was told that additivity in the second coordinate of any inner product space $\langle f,g\rangle$ logically follows from and can be proven using only these four properties of inner product spaces:
- $\langle f,g\rangle=\langle g,f\rangle$ (symmetry)
- $\langle f+h,g\rangle=\langle f,g\rangle+\langle h,g\rangle$ (additivity)
- $\langle \text{c}f,g\rangle=\text{c}\langle f,g\rangle$
- $\langle f,f\rangle>0\,\,\forall\,\left\{f\neq0\right\}\in V$, where $V$ is some linear space (posititive definiteness).
I'm thinking that 1. and 2. imply $\langle f,g+h\rangle=\langle f,g\rangle+\langle f,h\rangle$; how do I use these axioms to explicitly verify this?