Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 March 2014
The present paper contains an emendation to the theory of formal deducibility which was presented in lectures at the University of Notre Dame in the spring of 1948 [4]. The method of proof developed in these lectures for the elimination theorem, which corresponds to the “Hauptsatz” of Gentzen's thesis [6], failed when modal connectives were present. This deficiency was remedied soon thereafter; but it was not possible to include the new proof in those lectures. This new proof is presented below.
Before proceeding to this proof, the elimination theorem will be formulated, and its proof outlined, in an abstract form. Certain general conditions on the rules are formulated in §1; then, in §2, it is shown that the first two stages of the elimination theorem go through for any rules satisfying the conditions. The modifications necessary to extend this proof to cases where modal rules are present will then be taken care of in the later sections. A section on the extension of the elimination theorem to the singular form of LC is added at the end.
Presented at a joint meeting of the Association for Symbolic Logic and the American Mathematical Society, December 30, 1948 under the title The elimination theorem when necessity is present. The sections having to do with possibility were added in August 1950.