Paul Hertz`s Systems of Propositions As a Proof-theoretical Conception of Logic

JAVIER LEGRIS

: Advances in Natural Deduction. A Celebration of Dag Prawitz?s Work,

Springer

Lugar: Dordrecht; Año: 2014; p. 93 - 101

Paul Hertz was an outstanding German physicist, who also devoted himself to mathematical logic and wrote a series of papers that remained rather unnoticed, even if they influenced the development of proof theory and particularly Gentzen´s work . This paper aims to examine Hertz´s logical theory placing it in its historical context and remarking its influence in Gentzen´s sequent calculus. The analysis of the formal structure of proofs was one of Hertz´s most important achievements and  it can be regarded as an anticipation of a ?theory of proofs? in the current sense. But also, it can be asserted that Hertz´s systems played the role of a bridge between traditional formal logic and Gentzen´s logical work. Hertz´s philosophical ideas concerning the nature of logic and its place in scientific knowledge will be also analysed in this paper.