Hilbert's Program Then and Now

Hilbert's program was an ambitious and wide-ranging project in the philosophy and foundations of mathematics. In order to "dispose of the foundational questions in mathematics once and for all, "Hilbert proposed a two-pronged approach in 1921: first, classical mathematics should be formalized in axiomatic systems; second, using only restricted, "finitary" means, one should give proofs of the consistency of these axiomatic systems. Although Godel's incompleteness theorems show that the program as originally conceived cannot be carried out, it had many partial successes, and generated important advances in logical theory and meta-theory, both at the time and since. The article discusses the historical background and development of Hilbert's program, its philosophical underpinnings and consequences, and its subsequent development and influences since the 1930s.Comment: 43 page

Semi-simplicial Types in Logic-enriched Homotopy Type Theory

The problem of defining Semi-Simplicial Types (SSTs) in Homotopy Type Theory (HoTT) has been recognized as important during the Year of Univalent Foundations at the Institute of Advanced Study. According to the interpretation of HoTT in Quillen model categories, SSTs are type-theoretic versions of Reedy fibrant semi-simplicial objects in a model category and simplicial and semi-simplicial objects play a crucial role in many constructions in homotopy theory and higher category theory. Attempts to define SSTs in HoTT lead to some difficulties such as the need of infinitary assumptions which are beyond HoTT with only non-strict equality types. Voevodsky proposed a definition of SSTs in Homotopy Type System (HTS), an extension of HoTT with non-fibrant types, including an extensional strict equality type. However, HTS does not have the desirable computational properties such as decidability of type checking and strong normalization. In this paper, we study a logic-enriched homotopy type theory, an alternative extension of HoTT with equational logic based on the idea of logic-enriched type theories. In contrast to Voevodskys HTS, all types in our system are fibrant and it can be implemented in existing proof assistants. We show how SSTs can be defined in our system and outline an implementation in the proof assistant Plastic

Univalent Foundations as a Foundation for Mathematical Practice

I prove that invoking the univalence axiom is equivalent to arguing 'without loss of generality' (WLOG) within Propositional Univalent Foundations (PropUF), the fragment of Univalent Foundations (UF) in which all homotopy types are mere propositions. As a consequence, I argue that practicing mathematicians, in accepting WLOG as a valid form of argument, implicitly accept the univalence axiom and that UF rightly serves as a Foundation for Mathematical Practice. By contrast, ZFC is inconsistent with WLOG as it is applied, and therefore cannot serve as a foundation for practice

Quantum Structure in Cognition, Origins, Developments, Successes and Expectations

We provide an overview of the results we have attained in the last decade on the identification of quantum structures in cognition and, more specifically, in the formalization and representation of natural concepts. We firstly discuss the quantum foundational reasons that led us to investigate the mechanisms of formation and combination of concepts in human reasoning, starting from the empirically observed deviations from classical logical and probabilistic structures. We then develop our quantum-theoretic perspective in Fock space which allows successful modeling of various sets of cognitive experiments collected by different scientists, including ourselves. In addition, we formulate a unified explanatory hypothesis for the presence of quantum structures in cognitive processes, and discuss our recent discovery of further quantum aspects in concept combinations, namely, 'entanglement' and 'indistinguishability'. We finally illustrate perspectives for future research.Comment: 25 pages. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1412.870

Mathematics and language

This essay considers the special character of mathematical reasoning, and draws on observations from interactive theorem proving and the history of mathematics to clarify the nature of formal and informal mathematical language. It proposes that we view mathematics as a system of conventions and norms that is designed to help us make sense of the world and reason efficiently. Like any designed system, it can perform well or poorly, and the philosophy of mathematics has a role to play in helping us understand the general principles by which it serves its purposes well

Institutionalising Ontology-Based Semantic Integration

We address what is still a scarcity of general mathematical foundations for ontology-based semantic integration underlying current knowledge engineering methodologies in decentralised and distributed environments. After recalling the first-order ontology-based approach to semantic integration and a formalisation of ontological commitment, we propose a general theory that uses a syntax-and interpretation-independent formulation of language, ontology, and ontological commitment in terms of institutions. We claim that our formalisation generalises the intuitive notion of ontology-based semantic integration while retaining its basic insight, and we apply it for eliciting and hence comparing various increasingly complex notions of semantic integration and ontological commitment based on differing understandings of semantics

On Constructive Axiomatic Method

In this last version of the paper one may find a critical overview of some recent philosophical literature on Axiomatic Method and Genetic Method.Comment: 25 pages, no figure

The prospects for mathematical logic in the twenty-first century

The four authors present their speculations about the future developments of mathematical logic in the twenty-first century. The areas of recursion theory, proof theory and logic for computer science, model theory, and set theory are discussed independently.Comment: Association for Symbolic Logi