Although in the past three decades interest in mathematical explanation revived, recent literature on the subject seems to neglect the strict connection between explanation and discovery. In this paper I sketch an alternative approach that takes such connection into account. My approach is a revised version of one originally considered by Descartes. The main difference is that my approach is in...

T h i s paper i s i n t e n d e d t o d raw a t t e n t i o n t o a l i t e r a t u r e i n P h i l o s o p h y t h a t w o u l d b e o f g r e a t use and i n t e r e s t t o r e s e a r c h e r s a t t e m p t i n g t o s i m u l a t e n o n d e d u c t i v e r e a s o n i n g . Two m o d e l s o f such r e a s o n i n g a r e d i s c u s s e d , and t h e k e r n e l r o l e o f t h e c o n ...

Much of cognitive research on deductive reasoning has been preoccupied with advocating for or against visuospatial (mental model theory) or linguistic/syntactic (mental logic theory) models of logical reasoning. Neuroimaging studies bear on this issue by pointing to both language-based and visuospatial systems being engaged during logical reasoning, and by raising additional issues not anticipa...

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Deductive reasoning is an area related to argumentation where machine-based techniques, notably theorem proving, can contribute substantially to the formation of arguments. However, making use of the functionality of theorem provers for this issue is associated with a number of difficulties and, as we will demonstrate, requires considerable effort for obtaining reasonable results. Aiming at the...

Piaget’s classic experiments enabled, among many other things, identification of the types of reasoning children use in different developmental stages. His work identified both hypothetico-deductive and analogical reasoning as strong indicators of normal development. Although examples of each can be seen early on, consistent application and control of these types of reasoning emerges somewhere ...