The Review of Modern Logic Volume 9 Numbers 1 & 2 (November 2001-November 2003) [Issue 29], pp. 115-162. PNA PwNw PEIRCE’S LOGIC OF CONTINUITY: EXISTENTIAL GRAPHS AND NON-CANTORIAN CONTINUUM FERNANDO ZALAMEA Abstract. Peirce’s systems of existential graphs (Al- pha: classical propositional calculus; Beta: first-order purely relational logic; Gamma: modal calculi and second- order logic) are presented both from an historical per- spective and succinctly for the modern reader. Peirce’s alternative continuum, with its main non-Cantorian prop- erties (genericity, reflexivity, modality), is also presented both historically and synthetically. The blend of Peirce’s existential graphs and his non-Cantorian continuum gives rise to a thoroughly original logical approach to the “labyrinth of the continuum”. We explain why such an approach was set aside in the main developments of logic in the xx“ century, and we hint to a possible renewal of interest for Peirce’s continuity logic from the viewpoint of contemporary developments in category theory and geometric logic. CONTENTS Introduction The Misfortune of Peirce’s Late Logical Thought (1895-1910) Peirce’s Existential Graphs: Genetic Approach Peirce’s Existential Graphs: Succinct Modern Presentation Peirce’s Continuum: Genetic Approach Peirce’s Continuum: Succinct Modern Presentation Peirce’s Logic of Continuity Perspectives and Future Work References 116 118 121 124 137 139 154 159 161 © 2003 The Review of Modern Logic. 115116 FERNANDO ZALAMEA “La Logique est une science qui n’est pas des plus for- tunées: car, — tandis que la plupart des philosophes préférent en parler plutét que de l’ employer, - la plupart des mathématiciens préferent l’employer sans en parler et méme sans vouloir en entendre parler.” Alessandro Padoa (1936) 1. INTRODUCTION Leibniz’s “labyrinth of the continuum” has been explored in depth in xx" century mathematical logic, but mainly from a particular entrance door to the labyrinth: set theory intertwined with classical first-order logic (the system Zermelo-Fraenkel (ZF) and its extensions). The con- sistency (Gédel) and independence (Cohen) results on the continuum hypothesis, showed that, from a classical set-theoretic perspective, ad- ditional axioms were needed to obtain a finer grasp of the continuum. On that path, Woodin’s program to unveil natural maximal principles related to the projective determinacy of H(w,), in order to lift them up to H(w») and to force the cardinality of the continuum to be Ne, seems to have been very successful in a descriptive understanding of many internal layers of the continuum. Nevertheless, it should be clear that a given particular approach to a generic concept cannot hope to capture all its richness. The par- ticularity of approaching the continuum with classical first-order set- theoretic tools — however central ZF unquestionably can be for today’s mathematics — leaves aside important aspects of the continuum which those tools can, in fact, describe, but that they do not capture as main characteristics. The change of perspective is much more than a mere curiosity. If we understand pragmatically the continuum as a multi- layered, multi-dimensional conceptual landscape, necessarily glued to- gether with the vantage points (axiomatic systems, underlying logics) which reveal its perspectives and panoramas, it becomes evident that other, alternative, glances at the continuum should be of great value. The continuum — a protean mathematical concept if there ever was one — gains in richness when explored from other entrance doors to the labyrinth, as the following diagram illustrates:PEIRCE’S LOGIC OF CONTINUITY 17 real numbers cardinal R—c <| Gédel constructibles cof(c) Fw Kénig continuity concept u Figure 1. Proteus: pragmatic unfolding of the continuum