Paul Hertz and the Origins of Structural Reasoning

JAVIER LEGRIS

Universal Logic: An Anthology. From Paul Hertz to Dov Gabbay,

BIRKHÄUSER

Lugar: BASEL; Año: 2012; p. 3 - 10

The aim of this note is to introduce and summarizes Paul Hertz’s contributionsin his paper “On axiomatic systems for arbitrary systems of sentences” placing it in itshistorical context In it the first ideas concerning structural reasoning are to be found.Moreover, it influenced strongly Gentzen’s sequent calculus. The analysis of the formalstructure of proofs was one of Hertz’s most important achievements and it can be regardedalso as an anticipation of a “theory of proofs” in the current sense. In this note Hertz’sphilosophical ideas concerning the nature of logic will be also sketched.