Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-5g6vh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T20:30:59.903Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A note on existential instantiation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2014

Dag Prawitz*
Affiliation:
University of Stockholm

Extract

The presence of a rule for existential instantiation (EI) in a system of natural deduction often causes some difficulties, in particular, when it comes to formulate necessary restrictions on the rule for universal generalization (UG). A system containing rules for EI and UG that avoided Quine's rather cumbersome restrictions on these rules was formulated by Copi [2], but the system was found to be inconveniently restrictive. A less restrictive system was therefore suggested by Copi [3]. Also that system forces some deductions to be unnecessarily long as is shown in Prawitz [5, Appendix C, p. 104], where a way to liberalize Copi's restriction on UG is suggested (p. 105). However, the system suggested by Copi [3] is also incorrect (i.e. unsound) as has recently been shown by Parry [4] in this Journal.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Symbolic Logic 1967

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

[1]Borkowski, L. and Słupecki, J., A logical system based on rules and its applications in teaching mathematics, Studia logica, vol. 7 (1958), pp. 71106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[2]Copi, Irving, Symbolic logic, Macmillan, New York, 1954.Google Scholar
[3]Copi, Irving, Another variant of natural deduction, this Journal, vol. 21 (1956), pp. 5255.Google Scholar
[4]Parry, William, Comments on a variant form of natural deduction, this Journal, vol. 30 (1965), pp. 119122.Google Scholar
[5]Prawitz, Dag, Natural deduction. A proof-theoretical study, Almqvist & Wiksell, Stockholm, 1965.Google Scholar
[6]Rosser, Barkley, Logic for mathematicians, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1953.Google Scholar