Generality and Existence 1: Quantification and Free Logic

November 25, 2015

I’m giving a talk, entitled “Generality and Existence 1: Quantification and Free Logic” at a Workshop on Inferentialism, hosted by Arché at the University of St Andrews.

Abstract: In this presentation, I motivate a cut free sequent calculus for classical logic with first order quantification, allowing for singular terms free of existential import. Along the way, I motivate a criterion for rules designed to answer Prior’s question about what distinguishes rules for logical concepts, like conjunction from apparently similar rules for putative concepts like tonk, and I show that the rules for the quantifiers—and the existence predicate—satisfy that condition.

• Details of the workshop program.
• Draft paper.
• Slides.