Counter-Example Construction with Euler Diagrams

Abstract

One of the traditional applications of Euler diagrams is as a representation or counterpart of the usual set-theoretical models of given sentences. However, Euler diagrams have recently been investigated as the counterparts of logical formulas, which constitute formal proofs. Euler diagrams are rigorously defined as syntactic objects, and their inference systems, which are equivalent to some symbolic logical systems, are formalized. Based on this observation, we investigate both counter-model construction and proof-construction in the framework of Euler diagrams. We introduce the notion of "counter-diagrammatic proof", which shows the invalidity of a given inference, and which is defined as a syntactic manipulation of diagrams of the same sort as inference rules to construct proofs. Thus, in our Euler diagrammatic framework, the completeness theorem can be formalized in terms of the existence of a diagrammatic proof or a counter-diagrammatic proof.