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BOLZANO’S CONCEPT OF GROUNDING (ABFOLGE) AGAINST THE BACKGROUND OF NORMAL PROOFS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 July 2013

ANTJE RUMBERG
ANTJE RUMBERG*
Affiliation:
Utrecht University
*
*DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY, UTRECHT UNIVERSITY, UTRECHT, THE NETHERLANDS E-mail: Antje.Rumberg@phil.uu.nl
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Abstract

In this paper, I provide a thorough discussion and reconstruction of Bernard Bolzano’s theory of grounding and a detailed investigation into the parallels between his concept of grounding and current notions of normal proofs. Grounding (Abfolge) is an objective ground-consequence relation among true propositions that is explanatory in nature. The grounding relation plays a crucial role in Bolzano’s proof-theory, and it is essential for his views on the ideal buildup of scientific theories. Occasionally, similarities have been pointed out between Bolzano’s ideas on grounding and cut-free proofs in Gentzen’s sequent calculus. My thesis is, however, that they bear an even stronger resemblance to the normal natural deduction proofs employed in proof-theoretic semantics in the tradition of Dummett and Prawitz.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Symbolic Logic , Volume 6 , Issue 3 , September 2013 , pp. 424 - 459
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Symbolic Logic 2013 

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