Relevant consequence and empirical inquiry

A criterion of adequacy is proposed for theories of relevant consequence. According to the criterion, scientists whose deductive reasoning is limited to some proposed subset of the standard consequence relation must not thereby suffer a reduction in scientific competence. A simple theory of relevant consequence is introduced and shown to satisfy the criterion with respect to a formally defined paradigm of empirical inquiry. Comments University of Pennsylvania Department of Computer and Information Science, Technical Report No. MSCIS-91-26. This technical report is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/cis_reports/451 Relevant Consequence and Empirical Inquiry MS-CIS-91-26 LOGIC & COMPUTATION 30 Daniel N. Osherson (IDIAP) Scott Weinstein (University of Pennsylvania) Department of Computer and Information Science School of Engineering and Applied Science University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 19104-6389