Denotational semantics for languages of epistemic grounding based on Prawitz's theory of grounds

Abstract

We outline a class of term-languages for epistemic grounding inspired by Prawitz's theory of grounds. We show how denotation functions can be defined over these languages, relating terms to proof-objects built up of constructive functions. We discuss certain properties that the languages may enjoy both individually (canonical closure and universal denotation) and with respect to their expansions (primitive/non-primitive and conservative/non-conservative expansions). Finally, we provide a ground-theoretic version of Prawitz's completeness conjecture, and adapt to our framework a refutation of this conjecture due to Piecha and Schroeder-Heister.