This is the first treatment in book format of proof-theoretic transformations - known as proof interpretations - that focuses on applications to ordinary mathematics. It covers both the necessary logical machinery behind the proof interpretations that are used in recent applications as well as – via extended case studies – carrying out some of these applications in full detail. This subject has historical roots in the 1950s. This book for the first time tells the whole story.
This book provides readers with a guide to both ordinal analysis, and to proof theory. It mainly focuses on ordinal analysis, a research topic in proof theory that is concerned with the ordinal theoretic content of formal theories. However, the book also addresses ordinal analysis and basic materials in proof theory of first-order or omega logic, presenting some new results and new proofs of known ones.Primarily intended for graduate students and researchers in mathematics, especially in mathematical logic, the book also includes numerous exercises and answers for selected exercises, designed to help readers grasp and apply the main results and techniques discussed.
In a fragment entitled Elementa Nova Matheseos Universalis (1683?) Leibniz writes “the mathesis [...] shall deliver the method through which things that are conceivable can be exactly determined”; in another fragment he takes the mathesis to be “the science of all things that are conceivable.” Leibniz considers all mathematical disciplines as branches of the mathesis and conceives the mathesis as a general science of forms applicable not only to magnitudes but to every object that exists in our imagination, i.e. that is possible at least in principle. As a general science of forms the mathesis investigates possible relations between “arbitrary objects” (“objets quelconques”). It is an abstract theory of combinations and relations among objects whatsoever. In 1810 the mathematician and philosopher Bernard Bolzano published a booklet entitled Contributions to a Better-Grounded Presentation of Mathematics. There is, according to him, a certain objective connection among the truths that are germane to a certain homogeneous field of objects: some truths are the “reasons” (“Gründe”) of others, and the latter are “consequences” (“Folgen”) of the former. The reason-consequence relation seems to be the counterpart of causality at the level of a relation between true propositions. Arigorous proof is characterized in this context as a proof that shows the reason of the proposition that is to be proven. Requirements imposed on rigorous proofs seem to anticipate normalization results in current proof theory. The contributors of Mathesis Universalis, Computability and Proof, leading experts in the fields of computer science, mathematics, logic and philosophy, show the evolution of these and related ideas exploring topics in proof theory, computability theory, intuitionistic logic, constructivism and reverse mathematics, delving deeply into a contextual examination of the relationship between mathematical rigor and demands for simplification.
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th Conference on Computability in Europe, CiE 2010, held in Ponta Delgada, Azores, Portugal, in June/July 2010. The 28 revised papers presented together with 20 invited lectures were carefully reviewed and selected from 90 submissions. The papers address not only the more established lines of research of computational complexity and the interplay between proofs and computation, but also novel views that rely on physical and biological processes and models to find new ways of tackling computations and improving their efficiency.
This superb exposition of a complex subject examines new developments in the theory and practice of computation from a mathematical perspective, with topics ranging from classical computability to complexity, from biocomputing to quantum computing. This book is suitable for researchers and graduate students in mathematics, philosophy, and computer science with a special interest in logic and foundational issues. Most useful to graduate students are the survey papers on computable analysis and biological computing. Logicians and theoretical physicists will also benefit from this book.
Gerhard Gentzen has been described as logic’s lost genius, whom Gödel called a better logician than himself. This work comprises articles by leading proof theorists, attesting to Gentzen’s enduring legacy to mathematical logic and beyond. The contributions range from philosophical reflections and re-evaluations of Gentzen’s original consistency proofs to the most recent developments in proof theory. Gentzen founded modern proof theory. His sequent calculus and natural deduction system beautifully explain the deep symmetries of logic. They underlie modern developments in computer science such as automated theorem proving and type theory.
This volume honours the life and work of Solomon Feferman, one of the most prominent mathematical logicians of the latter half of the 20th century. In the collection of essays presented here, researchers examine Feferman’s work on mathematical as well as specific methodological and philosophical issues that tie into mathematics. Feferman’s work was largely based in mathematical logic (namely model theory, set theory, proof theory and computability theory), but also branched out into methodological and philosophical issues, making it well known beyond the borders of the mathematics community. With regard to methodological issues, Feferman supported concrete projects. On the one hand, these projects calibrate the proof theoretic strength of subsystems of analysis and set theory and provide ways of overcoming the limitations imposed by Gödel’s incompleteness theorems through appropriate conceptual expansions. On the other, they seek to identify novel axiomatic foundations for mathematical practice, truth theories, and category theory. In his philosophical research, Feferman explored questions such as “What is logic?” and proposed particular positions regarding the foundations of mathematics including, for example, his “conceptual structuralism.” The contributing authors of the volume examine all of the above issues. Their papers are accompanied by an autobiography presented by Feferman that reflects on the evolution and intellectual contexts of his work. The contributing authors critically examine Feferman’s work and, in part, actively expand on his concrete mathematical projects. The volume illuminates Feferman’s distinctive work and, in the process, provides an enlightening perspective on the foundations of mathematics and logic.
This book constitutes the proceedings of the 17th Conference on Computability in Europe, CiE 2021, organized by the University of Ghent in July 2021. Due to COVID-19 pandemic the conference was held virtually. The 48 full papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 50 submissions. CiE promotes the development of computability-related science, ranging over mathematics, computer science and applications in various natural and engineering sciences, such as physics and biology, as well as related fields, such as philosophy and history of computing. CiE 2021 had as its motto Connecting with Computability, a clear acknowledgement of the connecting and interdisciplinary nature of the conference series which is all the more important in a time where people are more than ever disconnected from one another due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Annual European Meeting of the Association for Symbolic Logic, also known as the Logic Colloquium, is among the most prestigious annual meetings in the field. The current volume, Logic Colloquium 2007, with contributions from plenary speakers and selected special session speakers, contains both expository and research papers by some of the best logicians in the world. This volume covers many areas of contemporary logic: model theory, proof theory, set theory, and computer science, as well as philosophical logic, including tutorials on cardinal arithmetic, on Pillay's conjecture, and on automatic structures. This volume will be invaluable for experts as well as those interested in an overview of central contemporary themes in mathematical logic.
Computable analysis is the modern theory of computability and complexity in analysis that arose out of Turing's seminal work in the 1930s. This was motivated by questions such as: which real numbers and real number functions are computable, and which mathematical tasks in analysis can be solved by algorithmic means? Nowadays this theory has many different facets that embrace topics from computability theory, algorithmic randomness, computational complexity, dynamical systems, fractals, and analog computers, up to logic, descriptive set theory, constructivism, and reverse mathematics. In recent decades computable analysis has invaded many branches of analysis, and researchers have studied computability and complexity questions arising from real and complex analysis, functional analysis, and the theory of differential equations, up to (geometric) measure theory and topology. This handbook represents the first coherent cross-section through most active research topics on the more theoretical side of the field. It contains 11 chapters grouped into parts on computability in analysis; complexity, dynamics, and randomness; and constructivity, logic, and descriptive complexity. All chapters are written by leading experts working at the cutting edge of the respective topic. Researchers and graduate students in the areas of theoretical computer science and mathematical logic will find systematic introductions into many branches of computable analysis, and a wealth of information and references that will help them to navigate the modern research literature in this field.
