Abstract:
In this paper, the inconsistency lemmas of intuitionistic and classical propositional logic are formulated abstractly.
We prove that, when a (finitary) deductive system is algebraized by a variety K, then has an inconsistency
lemma—in the abstract sense—iff every algebra in K has a dually pseudo-complemented join semilattice of
compact congruences. In this case, the following are shown to be equivalent: (1) has a classical inconsistency
lemma; (2) has a greatest compact theory and K is filtral, i.e., semisimple with EDPC; (3) the compact
congruences of any algebra in K form a Boolean lattice; (4) the compact congruences of any A ∈ K constitute
a Boolean sublattice of the full congruence lattice of A. These results extend to quasivarieties and relative
congruences. Except for (2), they extend even to protoalgebraic logics, with deductive filters in the role of
congruences. A protoalgebraic system with a classical inconsistency lemma always has a deduction-detachment
theorem (DDT), while a system with a DDT and a greatest compact theory has an inconsistency lemma. The
converses are false.
