Universal instantiation

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Transformation rules
Propositional calculus
Rules of inference Modus ponens Modus tollens Biconditional introduction Biconditional elimination Conjunction introduction Simplification Disjunction introduction Disjunction elimination Disjunctive syllogism Hypothetical syllogism Constructive dilemma Destructive dilemma Absorption Rules of replacement Associativity Commutativity Distributivity Double negation De Morgan's laws Transposition Material implication Material equivalence Exportation Tautology
Predicate logic
Universal generalization Universal instantiation Existential generalization Existential instantiation
v t e

In predicate logic universal instantiation^[1]^[2]^[3] (UI, also called universal specification, and sometimes confused with Dictum de omni) is a valid rule of inference from a truth about each member of a class of individuals to the truth about a particular individual of that class. It is generally given as a quantification rule for the universal quantifier but it can also be encoded in an axiom. It is one of the basic principles used in quantification theory.

Example: "All dogs are mammals. Fido is a dog. Therefore Fido is a mammal."

In symbols the rule as an axiom schema is

$\forall x\,A(x)\Rightarrow A(a/x),$

for some term a and where $A(a/x)$ is the result of substituting a for all occurrences of x in A.

And as a rule of inference it is

from ⊢ ∀x A infer ⊢ A(a/x),

with A(a/x) the same as above.

Irving Copi noted that universal instantiation "...follows from variants of rules for 'natural deduction', which were devised independently by Gerhard Gentzen and Stanislaw Jaskowski in 1934." ^[4]

Quine

Universal Instantiation and Existential generalization are two aspects of a single principle, for instead of saying that '(x(x=x)' implies 'Socrates is Socrates', we could as well say that the denial 'Socrates≠Socrates' implies '(∃x(x≠x)'. The principle embodied in these two operations is the link between quantifications and the singular statements that are related to them as instances. Yet it is a principle only by courtesy. It holds only in the case where a term names and, furthermore, occurs referentially.^[5]

References

↑ Copi and Cohen
↑ Hurley
↑ Moore and Parker
↑ pg. 71. Symbolic Logic; 5th ed.
↑ Quine,W.V.O., Quintessence, Extensionalism, Reference and Modality, P366

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Universal instantiation

Quine

See also

References