Lesson plan
Deep inference
In mathematical logic, deep inference names a general idea in structural proof theory that breaks with the classical sequent calculus by generalising the notion of structure to permit inference to occur in contexts of high structural complexity. The term deep inference is generally reserved for proof calculi where the structural complexity is unbounded; in this article we will use non-shallow inference to refer to calculi that have structural complexity greater than the sequent calculus, but not unboundedly so, although this is not at present established terminology. Deep inference is not important in logic outside of structural proof theory, since the phenomena that lead to the proposal of formal systems with deep inference are all related to the cut-elimination theorem. The first calculus of deep inference was proposed by Kurt Schütte, but the idea did not generate much interest at the time. Nuel Belnap proposed display logic in an attempt to characterise the essence of structural proof theory. The calculus of structures was proposed in order to give a cut-free characterisation of noncommutative logic. Cirquent calculus was developed as a system of deep inference allowing to explicitly account for the possibility of subcomponent-sharing.
Article summary
In mathematical logic, deep inference names a general idea in structural proof theory that breaks with the classical sequent calculus by generalising the notion of structure to permit inference to occur in contexts of high structural complexity. The term deep inference is generally reserved for proof calculi where the structural complexity is unbounded; in this article we will use non-shallow inference to refer to calculi that have structural complexity greater than the sequent calculus, but not unboundedly so, although this is not at present established terminology. Deep inference is not important in logic outside of structural proof theory, since the phenomena that lead to the proposal of formal systems with deep inference are all related to the cut-elimination theorem. The first calculus of deep inference was proposed by Kurt Schütte, but the idea did not generate much interest at the time. Nuel Belnap proposed display logic in an attempt to characterise the essence of structural proof theory. The calculus of structures was proposed in order to give a cut-free characterisation of noncommutative logic. Cirquent calculus was developed as a system of deep inference allowing to explicitly account for the possibility of subcomponent-sharing.
Key claims
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Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.