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It is not the case that Formal validity is not exhausted by syntactic form alone; semantic consequence relations can ground validity independently of form.
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1.
Semantic consequence presupposes formal validity; distinguishing 'valid' arguments requires formal criteria that don't themselves depend on meaning.
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2.
Appeals to semantic grounding risk circularity: determining which semantic relations count as validity-grounding requires prior logical principles.
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3.
Formal validity's strength lies precisely in being independent of content, allowing universal application across domains without semantic ambiguity.
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Reasons Against
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Reason against
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1.
Valid inferences in natural language depend on meaning: 'All bachelors are unmarried' is valid by semantic content, not formal structure alone.
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2.
Semantic entailment can hold across formally distinct structures when propositions share necessary conceptual relationships independent of syntax.
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3.
Formal systems require interpretation to connect to reality; validity ultimately depends on how semantic content maps to truth conditions.
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