Abstract
The main objective of this paper is to sketch unifying conceptual and formal framework for inference that is able to explain various proof techniques without implicitly changing the underlying notion of inference rules. We base this framework upon the so-called two-dimensional, i.e., deduction to deduction, account of inference introduced by Tichý in his seminal work The Foundation’s of Frege’s Logic (1988). Consequently, it will be argued that sequent calculus provides suitable basis for such general concept of inference and therefore should not be seen just as technical tool, but philosophically well-founded system that can rival natural deduction in terms of its “naturalness”.
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An earlier version of this paper was presented at the ‘Oberseminar Logik und Sprachtheorie’, held at Universität Tübingen (June 2013), and I would like to thank the audiencce for discussion. Also I am grateful to two anonymous reviewers of Logica Universalis for their helpful corrections and remarks on an earlier version of this paper and Jiří Raclavský for his insightful comments and suggestions.
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Pezlar, I. Towards a More General Concept of Inference. Log. Univers. 8, 61–81 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11787-014-0095-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11787-014-0095-3