Natural deduction and arbitrary objects (Q1061731)

The most important inferences involving quantifiers are universal generalization (UG) and existential instantiation (EI): ''We may establish that all objects have a given property by showing that an arbitrary object has the property; and having shown that there exists an object with a given property, we feel entitled to give it a name and infer that it has the property'' (p. 57). In standard system of natural deduction these inferences are formally represented by rules of deduction that contain suitable restrictions concerning the singular terms. The author wants to justify these restrictions by developing a semantics of ''arbitrary objects''. Technically speaking, standard models (over a non- empty domain of individuals, I) are expanded to A(rbitrary)-models by 3 extra components: a set A of arbitrary objects or variables (distinct from the elements of I); a relation of ''dependence'' between arbitrary objects; and a family of value-assignments, i.e. partial functions from A into I. The ''generic'' semantics based upon these A-models is claimed to have several advantages: 1) providing a method of discovering systems of natural deduction; 2) to confer meaning to the syntactic derivations; 3) to provide simple proofs of soundness; and 4) to accord with informal, ordinary reasoning.