Theory of logical calculi. Basic theory of consequence operations (Q1188523)

This book is a masterpiece of exposition. In his Preface, the author succinctly and clearly states the topic of the book, summarizes each chapter, and specifies the prerequisites for appreciating it. The Introduction has two sections: ``How to use this book'' and ``Notation''. The first section even includes a flow chart with comments guiding readers to selections of the various chapters sections depending upon their interests and mathematical sophistication. The Introduction draws our attention to a very valuable feature: Each chapter begins with an outline and each section with an introductory note commenting on the main notions and results of the section. The book concludes with a good bibliography and indices of subjects, names, and symbols. What, though, is this subject matter which the author presents so masterfully? I take exception to Wójcicki's answer on only one small point. He writes: ``This is not a book on the history of logic in Poland; however, still less is it meant to be propaganda for `Polish logic', to use this rather irritating cliche.'' The book is not a history of logic in Poland, although there are several important and informative philosophical and historical notes throughout the text. It is certainly not propaganda; it is clear and elegant metalogic. `Polish' in 'Polish logic' should not be irritating. In these times when the world admires the Polish people for their courage and endurance in freeing Eastern Europe, `Polish' is indeed a term of praise. Of course, if the focus is on `logic' the phrase irritatingly suggests the absurdity of national logics. But here `logic' means `metalogic', which the book's title presents as: ``Theory of logical calculi''. Polish metalogic, developed in the past sixty years under some of Poland's most severe trials, is another Polish contribution to our common intellectual culture. I sincerely hope that when I honor and accurately describe a way of doing metalogic by labelling it `Polish' I do not irritate the people who have created this contribution. What is Polish metalogic which Wójcicki so masterfully presents and to which he himself has contributed? This book gives an authoritative answer. The subtitle summarizes it as: ``Basic theory of consequence operations''. In a bit more detail, though, what topics are covered? Only hints of the topics can be given here. Each chapter moves from basic concepts to significant results. The focus is upon classical and non-classical propositional calculi with quantificational logic getting brief attention in the last chapter. Chapter 1, ``Basic concepts'', introduces the fundamental notion of consequence operation. Chapter 2, ``Deductive bases and interpretations'', is devoted to proof theoretic matters. But proof theory, even for propositional logics, is novel in the context of presenting logics in terms of consequence operations. In this chapter several non-classical logics, including relevance logics, are examined. Chapter 3, ``Logical matrices'', presents a distinctive Polish contribution: The method of logical matrices. Chapter 4 deals with finite or tabular matrices. Problems of characterizing consequence operations with classes of matrices become deep and demanding. The author's guidelines are helpful in this mathematical sophisticated field. Chapter 5, ``Referential semantics'', integrates possible worlds model structure semantics into the basic theory of consequence operations. Chapter 6, ``Propositional vs. predicate logics'', concludes the book with a sophisticated algebraic investigation of extending classical and non- classical propositional logics to predicate logics. Wójcicki's book may be too expensive for personal libraries. But it should be in the libraries of institutions which consider themselves to offer resources for serious research in philosophy, linguistics, and logic.