Dag Prawitz on Proofs and Meaning

Dag Prawitz on Proofs and Meaning
Author: Heinrich Wansing
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 469
Release: 2014-11-27
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3319110411

This volume is dedicated to Prof. Dag Prawitz and his outstanding contributions to philosophical and mathematical logic. Prawitz's eminent contributions to structural proof theory, or general proof theory, as he calls it, and inference-based meaning theories have been extremely influential in the development of modern proof theory and anti-realistic semantics. In particular, Prawitz is the main author on natural deduction in addition to Gerhard Gentzen, who defined natural deduction in his PhD thesis published in 1934. The book opens with an introductory paper that surveys Prawitz's numerous contributions to proof theory and proof-theoretic semantics and puts his work into a somewhat broader perspective, both historically and systematically. Chapters include either in-depth studies of certain aspects of Dag Prawitz's work or address open research problems that are concerned with core issues in structural proof theory and range from philosophical essays to papers of a mathematical nature. Investigations into the necessity of thought and the theory of grounds and computational justifications as well as an examination of Prawitz's conception of the validity of inferences in the light of three “dogmas of proof-theoretic semantics” are included. More formal papers deal with the constructive behaviour of fragments of classical logic and fragments of the modal logic S4 among other topics. In addition, there are chapters about inversion principles, normalization of p roofs, and the notion of proof-theoretic harmony and other areas of a more mathematical persuasion. Dag Prawitz also writes a chapter in which he explains his current views on the epistemic dimension of proofs and addresses the question why some inferences succeed in conferring evidence on their conclusions when applied to premises for which one already possesses evidence.

Essays on Mathematical and Philosophical Logic

Essays on Mathematical and Philosophical Logic
Author: Jaakko Hintikka
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 494
Release: 1979
Genre: Gardening
ISBN: 9789027708793

Proceedings of the Fourth Scandinavian Logic Symposium and of the First Soviet-Finnish Logic Conference, Jyväskylä, Finland, June 29-July 6, 1976.

Advances in Proof-Theoretic Semantics

Advances in Proof-Theoretic Semantics
Author: Thomas Piecha
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2015-10-24
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 331922686X

This volume is the first ever collection devoted to the field of proof-theoretic semantics. Contributions address topics including the systematics of introduction and elimination rules and proofs of normalization, the categorial characterization of deductions, the relation between Heyting's and Gentzen's approaches to meaning, knowability paradoxes, proof-theoretic foundations of set theory, Dummett's justification of logical laws, Kreisel's theory of constructions, paradoxical reasoning, and the defence of model theory. The field of proof-theoretic semantics has existed for almost 50 years, but the term itself was proposed by Schroeder-Heister in the 1980s. Proof-theoretic semantics explains the meaning of linguistic expressions in general and of logical constants in particular in terms of the notion of proof. This volume emerges from presentations at the Second International Conference on Proof-Theoretic Semantics in Tübingen in 2013, where contributing authors were asked to provide a self-contained description and analysis of a significant research question in this area. The contributions are representative of the field and should be of interest to logicians, philosophers, and mathematicians alike.

Proof-theoretic Semantics

Proof-theoretic Semantics
Author: Nissim Francez
Publisher:
Total Pages: 438
Release: 2015-10-29
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 9781848901834

This book is a monograph on the topic of Proof-Theoretic Semantics, a theory of meaning constituting an alternative to the more traditional Model-Theoretic Semantics. The latter regards meaning as truth-conditions (in arbitrary models), the former regards meaning as canonical derivability conditions in a meaning-conferring natural-deduction proof-system. In the first part of the book, the Proof-Theoretic Semantics for logic is presented. It surveys the way a natural-deduction system can serve as meaning-conferring, and in particular analyses various criteria such a system has to meet in order to qualify as meaning-conferring. A central criterion is harmony, a balance between introduction-rules and elimination-rules. The theory is applied to various logics, e.g., relevance logic, and various proof systems such as multi-conclusion natural-deduction and bilateralism. The presentation is inspired by recent work by the author, and also surveys recent developments. In part two, the theory is applied to fragments of natural language, both extensional and intensional, a development based on the author's recent work. For example, conservativity of determiners, once set up in a proof-theoretic framework, becomes a provable property of all (regular) determiners. It is shown that meaning need not carry the heavy ontological load characteristic of Model-Theoretic Semantics of complex natural language constructs. Nissim Francez is an emeritus professor of computer science at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology. At a certain point in his career he moved from research related to concurrent and distributed programming and program verification to research in computational linguistics, mainly formal semantics of natural language. In recent years, he has worked on Proof-Theoretic Semantics, in particular for natural language.

Structural Proof Theory

Structural Proof Theory
Author: Sara Negri
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2008-07-10
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 9780521068420

A concise introduction to structural proof theory, a branch of logic studying the general structure of logical and mathematical proofs.

The Logical Basis of Metaphysics

The Logical Basis of Metaphysics
Author: Michael Dummett
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 376
Release: 1991
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780674537866

This performance of the Richard Strauss opera Arabella with the Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera features vocalists such as Emily Magee, Genia Kuhmeier, and Tomasz Konieczny in the leading roles. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi

Logic for Computer Science

Logic for Computer Science
Author: Jean H. Gallier
Publisher: Courier Dover Publications
Total Pages: 532
Release: 2015-06-18
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 0486780821

This advanced text for undergraduate and graduate students introduces mathematical logic with an emphasis on proof theory and procedures for algorithmic construction of formal proofs. The self-contained treatment is also useful for computer scientists and mathematically inclined readers interested in the formalization of proofs and basics of automatic theorem proving. Topics include propositional logic and its resolution, first-order logic, Gentzen's cut elimination theorem and applications, and Gentzen's sharpened Hauptsatz and Herbrand's theorem. Additional subjects include resolution in first-order logic; SLD-resolution, logic programming, and the foundations of PROLOG; and many-sorted first-order logic. Numerous problems appear throughout the book, and two Appendixes provide practical background information.

Handbook of Philosophical Logic

Handbook of Philosophical Logic
Author: D.M. Gabbay
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 371
Release: 2006-01-17
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1402035217

The ninth volume of the Second Edition contains major contributions on Rewriting Logic as a Logical and Semantic Framework, Logical Frameworks, Proof Theory and Meaning, Goal Directed Deductions, Negations, Completeness and Consistency as well as Logic as General Rationality. Audience: Students and researchers whose work or interests involve philosophical logic and its applications.

Proof and Falsity

Proof and Falsity
Author: Nils Kürbis
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 317
Release: 2019-05-09
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1108619827

This book argues that the meaning of negation, perhaps the most important logical constant, cannot be defined within the framework of the most comprehensive theory of proof-theoretic semantics, as formulated in the influential work of Michael Dummett and Dag Prawitz. Nils Kürbis examines three approaches that have attempted to solve the problem - defining negation in terms of metaphysical incompatibility; treating negation as an undefinable primitive; and defining negation in terms of a speech act of denial - and concludes that they cannot adequately do so. He argues that whereas proof-theoretic semantics usually only appeals to a notion of truth, it also needs to appeal to a notion of falsity, and proposes a system of natural deduction in which both are incorporated. Offering new perspectives on negation, denial and falsity, his book will be important for readers working on logic, metaphysics and the philosophy of language.

Meaning and Justification. An Internalist Theory of Meaning

Meaning and Justification. An Internalist Theory of Meaning
Author: Gabriele Usberti
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 409
Release: 2023-07-28
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3031246055

This volume develops a theory of meaning and a semantics for both mathematical and empirical sentences inspired to Chomsky’s internalism, namely to a view of semantics as the study of the relations of language not with external reality but with internal, or mental, reality. In the first part a theoretical notion of justification for a sentence A is defined, by induction on the complexity of A; intuitively, justifications are conceived as cognitive states of a particular kind. The main source of inspiration for this part is Heyting’s explanation of the intuitionistic meaning of logical constants. In the second part the theory is applied to the solution of several foundational problems in the theory of meaning and epistemology, such as Frege’s puzzle, Mates’ puzzle about synonymy, the paradox of analysis, Kripke’s puzzle about belief, the de re/de dicto distinction, the specific/non-specific distinction, Gettier’s problems, the paradox of knowability, and the characterization of truth. On a more general philosophical level, throughout the book the author develops a tight critique of the neo-verificationism of Dummett, Prawitz and Martin-Löf, and defends a mentalist interpretation of intuitionism.