Symmetry vs. Duality in Logic

Abstract

The author discusses the problem of symmetry, namely of the orientation of the logical consequence. The author shows that the problem is surprisingly entangled with the problem of “being infinite”. The author presents a model based on quantum states and shows that it features satisfy the requirements of the symmetric mode of Bi-logic, a logic introduced in the '70s by the psychoanalyst I. Matte Blanco to describe the logic of the unconscious. The author discusess symmetry, in the model, to include correlations, in order to obtain a possible approach to displacement. In this setting, the author finds a possible reading of the structural rules of sequent calculus, whose role in computation, on one side, and in the representation of human reasoning, on the other, has been debated for a long time.