An infinite class of maximal intermediate propositional logics with the disjunction property (Q1204112)

The paper starts by discussing a result of Kirk, according to which two well-known intermediate propositional logics (logics for sake of conciseness) with the disjunction property are constructively incompatible, namely, the logic \(KP\) of Kreisel and Putnam and the logic \(D_ 1\) of Gabbay and De Jongh of the finite binary trees. This means that no logic with the disjunction property can contain both \(KP\) and \(D_ 1\). As a consequence, there are at least two maximal logics with the disjunction property and the problem of evaluating the number of such logics arises. The analysis of Kirk's result is carried out both from the point of view of the result itself and of the method used to prove it. As for the second aspect, Kirk's proof turns out to be a wrong proof of a true result, since it fails to correctly combine, in a unique construction, two completeness theorems (for \(KP\) and for \(D_ 1\)) obtained by using different filtration techniques. To overcome this difficulty, as well as to obtain a flexible tool for putting together the semantical characterizations of various logics, the author introduces a new filtration technique, merging the main features of the one for \(KP\) and the one for \(D_ 1\). This filtration method allows to refine Kirk's result in the following sense: the logic \(KP+D_ 1\), i.e. the smallest logic simultaneously extending \(KP\) and \(D_ 1\), contains infinitely many pairwise constructively incompatible logics with the disjunction property. Thus, at least countably many maximal logics with the disjunction property can be singled out, each of them extending a sublogic of \(KP+D_ 1\). These logics, however, do not exhaust the picture of the set of the maximal logics with the disjunction property given in the paper. As a matter of fact, other families of pairwise constructively incompatible logics with the disjunction property are presented, which can be defined starting from well-known logics, such as Scott's logic and the decreasing sequence of logics of Gabbay and De Jongh. The results concerning the latter families of constructively incompatible logics are given without proof, but their proofs can be carried out as for the sublogics of \(KP+D_ 1\). In particular, the same filtration technique is involved. The study of the maximal logics with the disjunction property has been carried out further by the author in subsequent research. In particular, an appropriate extension of the filtration technique used in the paper has provided the following results: 1) a direct semantical characterization in terms of Kripke frames of infinitely many maximal logics with the disjunction property, which in the paper are singled out only as maximal extensions of constructively incompatible logics (using Zorn's Lemma); 2) a proof that the set of the maximal logics with the disjunction property has the power of the continuum. The latter result has been independently proved by A. V. Chagrov and G. I. Galanter, as the author has recently learned.