Fregean logics (Q598302)

According to Frege's principle the denotation of a sentence coincides with its truth value. The principle is investigated within the context of abstract algebraic logic, and it is shown that, taken together with the deduction theorem, it characterizes intuitionistic logic in a certain strong sense. A second-order matrix is an algebra together with an algebraic closed set system on its universe. A deductive system is a second-order matrix over the formula algebra of some fixed but arbitrary language. A second-order matrix \(A\) is Fregean if, for any subset \(X\) of \(A\), the set of all pairs \(\langle a,b\rangle\) such that \(X\vee \{a\}\) and \(X\vee \{b\}\) have the same closure is a congruence relation on \(A\). Hence a deductive system is Fregean if interderivability is compositional.The logics intermediate between the classical and intuitionistic propositional calculi are paradigms for Fregean logics. Another important theme of the paper has to do with an old problem in abstract algebraic logic: why is it that almost all the algebraizable logics in the literature have varieties of algebras as their algebraic counterparts (these are said to be strongly algebraizable), when the general theory of algebraizable logics indicates that quasivarieties are the natural algebraic counterparts? The paper contains some new insights into the solution of this problem. In particular, it is shown that every Fregean deductive system with the uniterm deduction-detachment theorem is strongly algebraizable and that its algebraic counterpart is termwise definitionally equivalent to a variety of Hilbert algebras with compatible operations. Similarly, it is shown that every protoalgebraic Fregean deductive system with conjunction is strongly algebraizable provided it has at least one theorem, and that its algebraic counterpart is termwise definitionally equivalent to a variety of Brouwerian semilattices with compatible operations. Partial generalizations of these results to self-extensional systems are also given. The other central topic of the paper is an investigation of the relationship between Fregean deductive systems and their matrix semantics. It is proved that if a protoalgebraic deductive system is Fregean, then every full second-order model of it is Fregean. Conversely, the deductive system determined by any class of Fregean second-order matrices is Fregean.