We study various extensions of Gentzen’s sequent calculus obtained by adding rules for equality. One of them is singled out as particularly natural and shown to satisfy full cut elimination, namely, also atomic cuts can be eliminated. Furthermore we tell apart the extensions that satisfy full cut elimination from those that do not and establish a strengthened form of the nonlenghtening property of Lifschitz and Orevkov.

We study effectively inseparable (abbreviated as e.i.) prelattices (i.e., structures of the form $L = \langle \omega , \wedge , \vee ,0,1,{ \le _L}\rangle$ where ω denotes the set of natural numbers and the following four conditions hold: (1) $\wedge , \vee$ are binary computable operations; (2) ${ \le _L}$ is a computably enumerable preordering relation, with $0{ \le _L}x{ \le _L}1$ for every x; (3) the equivalence relation ${ \equiv _L}$ originated by ${ \le _L}$ is a congruence on L such that the corresponding quotient structure is a nontrivial bounded lattice; (4) the ${ \equiv _L}$ -equivalence classes of 0 and 1 form an effectively inseparable pair of sets). Solving a problem in (Montagna & Sorbi, 1985) we show (Theorem 4.2), that if L is an e.i. prelattice then ${ \le _L}$ is universal with respect to all c.e. preordering relations, i.e., for every c.e. preordering relation R there exists a computable function f reducing R to ${ \le _L}$ , i.e., $xRy$ if and only if $f\left( x \right){ \le _L}f\left( y \right)$ , for all $x,y$ . In fact (Corollary 5.3) ${ \le _L}$ is locally universal, i.e., for every pair $a{ < _L}b$ and every c.e. preordering relation R one can find a reducing function f from R to ${ \le _L}$ such that the range of f is contained in the interval $\left\{ {x:a{ \le _L}x{ \le _L}b} \right\}$ . Also (Theorem 5.7) ${ \le _L}$ is uniformly dense, i.e., there exists a computable function f such that for every $a,b$ if $a{ < _L}b$ then $a{ < _L}f\left( {a,b} \right){ < _L}b$ , and if $a{ \equiv _L}a\prime$ and $b{ \equiv _L}b\prime$ then $f\left( {a,b} \right){ \equiv _L}f\left( {a\prime ,b\prime } \right)$ . Some consequences and applications of these results are discussed: in particular (Corollary 7.2) for $n \ge 1$ the c.e. preordering relation on ${{\rm{\Sigma }}_n}$ sentences yielded by the relation of provable implication of any c.e. consistent extension of Robinson’s system R or Q is locally universal and uniformly dense; and (Corollary 7.3) the c.e. preordering relation yielded by provable implication of any c.e. consistent extension of Heyting Arithmetic is locally universal and uniformly dense.

This paper clarifies, revises, and extends the account of the transmission of truthmakers by core proofs that was set out in chap. 9 of Tennant (2017). Brauer provided two kinds of example making clear the need for this. Unlike Brouwer’s counterexamples to excluded middle, the examples of Brauer that we are dealing with here establish the need for appeals to excluded middle when applying, to the problem of truthmaker-transmission, the already classical metalinguistic theory of model-relative evaluations.

Choices rarely deal with certainties; and, where assertoric logic and modal logic are insufficient, those seeking to be reasonable turn to one or more things called “probability.” These things typically have a shared mathematical form, which is an arithmetic construct. The construct is often felt to be unsatisfactory for various reasons. A more general construct is that of a preordering, which may even be incomplete, allowing for cases in which there is no known probability relation between two propositions or between two events. Previous discussion of incomplete preorderings has been as if incidental, with researchers focusing upon preorderings for which quantifications are possible. This article presents formal axioms for the more general case. Challenges peculiar to some specific interpretations of the nature of probability are brought to light in the context of these propositions. A qualitative interpretation is offered for probability differences that are often taken to be quantified. A generalization of Bayesian updating is defended without dependence upon coherence. Qualitative hypothesis testing is offered as a possible alternative in cases for which quantitative hypothesis testing is shown to be unsuitable.

We investigate a recent proposal for modal hypersequent calculi. The interpretation of relational hypersequents incorporates an accessibility relation along the hypersequent. These systems give the same interpretation of hypersequents as Lellman’s linear nested sequents, but were developed independently by Restall for S5 and extended to other normal modal logics by Parisi. The resulting systems obey Došen’s principle: the modal rules are the same across different modal logics. Different modal systems only differ in the presence or absence of external structural rules. With the exception of S5, the systems are modular in the sense that different structural rules capture different properties of the accessibility relation. We provide the first direct semantical cut-free completeness proofs for K, T, and D, and show how this method fails in the case of B and S4.

This paper contributes to a recent research program that extends arguments supporting elementary conditionalization to arguments supporting conditionalization with general, measure-theoretic conditional probabilities. I begin by suggesting an amendment to the framework that Rescorla (2018) has used to characterize regular conditional probabilities in terms of avoiding Dutch book. If we wish to model learning scenarios in which an agent gains complete membership knowledge about some subcollection of the events of interest to her, then we should focus on updating policies that are what I shall call proper. I go on to characterize regular conditional probabilities in proper learning scenarios using what van Fraassen (1999) calls The General Reflection Principle.

We consider the Lambek calculus, or noncommutative multiplicative intuitionistic linear logic, extended with iteration, or Kleene star, axiomatised by means of an $\omega $ -rule, and prove that the derivability problem in this calculus is $\Pi _1^0$ -hard. This solves a problem left open by Buszkowski (2007), who obtained the same complexity bound for infinitary action logic, which additionally includes additive conjunction and disjunction. As a by-product, we prove that any context-free language without the empty word can be generated by a Lambek grammar with unique type assignment, without Lambek’s nonemptiness restriction imposed (cf. Safiullin, 2007).

In his Tractatus, Wittgenstein maintained that arithmetic consists of equations arrived at by the practice of calculating outcomes of operations $\Omega ^{n}(\bar {\xi })$ defined with the help of numeral exponents. Since $Num$ (x) and quantification over numbers seem ill-formed, Ramsey wrote that the approach is faced with “insuperable difficulties.” This paper takes Wittgenstein to have assumed that his audience would have an understanding of the implicit general rules governing his operations. By employing the Tractarian logicist interpretation that the N-operator $N(\bar {\xi })$ and recursively defined arithmetic operators $\Omega ^{n}(\bar {\xi })$ are not different in kind, we can address Ramsey’s problem. Moreover, we can take important steps toward better understanding how Wittgenstein might have imagined emulating proof by mathematical induction.

Gödel’s ontological proof is by now well known based on the 1970 version, written in Gödel’s own hand, and Scott’s version of the proof. In this article new manuscript sources found in Gödel’s Nachlass are presented. Three versions of Gödel’s ontological proof have been transcribed, and completed from context as true to Gödel’s notes as possible. The discussion in this article is based on these new sources and reveals Gödel’s early intentions of a liberal comprehension principle for the higher order modal logic, an explicit use of second-order Barcan schemas, as well as seemingly defining a rigidity condition for the system. None of these aspects occurs explicitly in the later 1970 version, and therefore they have long been in focus of the debate on Gödel’s ontological proof.

In practice, mathematical proofs are most often the result of careful planning by the agents who produced them. As a consequence, each mathematical proof inherits a plan in virtue of the way it is produced, a plan which underlies its “architecture” or “unity.” This paper provides an account of plans and planning in the context of mathematical proofs. The approach adopted here consists in looking for these notions not in mathematical proofs themselves, but in the agents who produced them. The starting point is to recognize that to each mathematical proof corresponds a proof activity which consists of a sequence of deductive inferences—i.e., a sequence of epistemic actions—and that any written mathematical proof is only a report of its corresponding proof activity. The main idea to be developed is that the plan of a mathematical proof is to be conceived and analyzed as the plan of the agent(s) who carried out the corresponding proof activity. The core of the paper is thus devoted to the development of an account of plans and planning in the context of proof activities. The account is based on the theory of planning agency developed by Michael Bratman in the philosophy of action. It is fleshed out by providing an analysis of the notions of intention—the elementary components of plans—and practical reasoning—the process by which plans are constructed—in the context of proof activities. These two notions are then used to offer a precise characterization of the desired notion of plan for proof activities. A fruitful connection can then be established between the resulting framework and the recent theme of modularity in mathematics introduced by Jeremy Avigad. This connection is exploited to yield the concept of modular presentations of mathematical proofs which has direct implications for how to write and present mathematical proofs so as to deliver various epistemic benefits. The account is finally compared to the technique of proof planning developed by Alan Bundy and colleagues in the field of automated theorem proving. The paper concludes with some remarks on how the framework can be used to provide an analysis of understanding and explanation in the context of mathematical proofs.

This paper contributes to the calculization of evocation and erotetic implication as defined by Inferential Erotetic Logic (IEL). There is a straightforward approach to calculizing (propositional) erotetic implication which cannot be applied to evocation. First-order evocation is proven to be uncalculizable, i.e. there is no proof system, say FOE, such that for all $X, Q$ : X evokes Q iff there is an FOE-proof for the evocation of Q by X. These results suggest a critique of the represented approaches to calculizing IEL. This critique is expanded into a programmatic reconsideration of the IEL-definitions of evocation and erotetic implication. From a different point of view these definitions should be seen as desiderata that may or may not play the role of a point of orientation when setting up “rules of asking.”