Realizability and recursive mathematics

Section 1: Philosophy, logic and constructivityPhilosophy, formal logic and the theory of computation all bear on problems in the foundations of constructive mathematics. There are few places where these, often competing, disciplines converge more neatly than in the theory of realizability structures. Uealizability applies recursion-theoretic concepts to give interpretations of constructivism along lines suggested originally by Heyting and Kleene. The research reported in the dissertation revives the original insights of Kleene—by which realizability structures are viewed as models rather than proof-theoretic interpretations—to solve a major problem of classification and to draw mathematical consequences from its solution.Section 2: Intuitionism and recursion: the problem of classificationThe internal structure of constructivism presents an interesting problem. Mathematically, it is a problem of classification; for philosophy, it is one of conceptual organization. Within the past seventy years, constructive mathematics has grown into a jungle of fullydeveloped "constructivities," approaches to the mathematics of the calculable which range from strict finitism through hyperarithmetic model theory. The problem we address is taxonomic: to sort through the jungle, set standards for classification and determine those features which run through everything that is properly "constructive."There are two notable approaches to constructivity; these must appear prominently in any proposed classification. The most famous is Brouwer's intuitioniam. Intuitionism relies on a complete constructivization of the basic mathematical objects and logical operations. The other is classical recursive mathematics, as represented by the work of Dekker, Myhill, and Nerode. Classical constructivists use standard logic in a mathematical universe restricted to coded objects and recursive operations.The theorems of the dissertation give a precise answer to the classification problem for intuitionism and classical constructivism. Between these realms arc connected semantically through a model of intuitionistic set theory. The intuitionistic set theory IZF encompasses all of the intuitionistic mathematics that does not involve choice sequences. (This includes all the work of the Bishop school.) IZF has as a model a recursion-theoretic structure, V(A7), based on Kleene realizability. Since realizability takes set variables to range over "effective" objects, large parts of classical constructivism appear over the model as inter¬ preted subsystems of intuitionistic set theory. For example, the entire first-order classical theory of recursive cardinals and ordinals comes out as an intuitionistic theory of cardinals and ordinals under realizability. In brief, we prove that a satisfactory partial solution to the classification problem exists; theories in classical recursive constructivism are identical, under a natural interpretation, to intuitionistic theories. The interpretation is especially satisfactory because it is not a Godel-style translation; the interpretation can be developed so that it leaves the classical logical forms unchanged.Section 3: Mathematical applications of the translation:The solution to the classification problem is a bridge capable of carrying two-way mathematical traffic. In one direction, an identification of classical constructivism with intuitionism yields a certain elimination of recursion theory from the standard mathematical theory of effective structures, leaving pure set theory and a bit of model theory. Not only are the theorems of classical effective mathematics faithfully represented in intuitionistic set theory, but also the arguments that provide proofs of those theorems. Via realizability, one can find set-theoretic proofs of many effective results, and the set-theoretic proofs are often more straightforward than their recursion-theoretic counterparts. The new proofs are also more transparent, because they involve, rather than recursion theory plus set theory, at most the set-theoretic "axioms" of effective mathematics.Working the other way, many of the negative ("cannot be obtained recursively") results of classical constructivism carry over immediately into strong independence results from intuitionism. The theorems of Kalantari and Retzlaff on effective topology, for instance, turn into independence proofs concerning the structure of the usual topology on the intuitionistic reals.The realizability methods that shed so much light over recursive set theory can be applied to "recursive theories" generally. We devote a chapter to verifying that the realizability techniques can be used to good effect in the semantical foundations of computer science. The classical theory of effectively given computational domains a la Scott can be subsumed into the Kleene realizability universe as a species of countable noneffective domains. In this way, the theory of effective domains becomes a chapter (under interpre¬ tation) in an intuitionistic study of denotational semantics. We then show how the "extra information" captured in the logical signs under realizability can be used to give proofs of classical theorems about effective domains.Section 4: Solutions to metamathematical problems:The realizability model for set theory is very tractible; in many ways, it resembles a Boolean-valued universe. The tractibility is apparent in the solutions it offers to a number of open problems in the metamathematics of constructivity. First, there is the perennial problem of finding and delimiting in the wide constructive universe those features that correspond to structures familiar from classical mathematics. In the realizability model, it is easy to locate the collection of classical ordinals and to show that they form, intuitionistically, a set rather than a proper class. Also, one interprets an argument of Dekker and Myhill to prove that the classical powerset of the natural numbers contains at least continuum-many distinct cardinals.Second, a major tenet of Bishop's program for constructivity has been that constructive mathematics is "numerical:" all the properties of constructive objects, including the real numbers, can be represented as properties of the natural numbers. The realizability model shows that Bishop's numericalization of mathematics can, in principle, be accomplished. Every set over the model with decidable equality and every metric space is enumerated by a collection of natural numbers

Formalizing Constructive Analysis: A comparison of minimal systems and a study of uniqueness principles.

Αυτή η διατριβή εξετάζει ορισμένες πλευρές της τυποποίησης και της αξιωματικοποίησης της κατασκευαστικής ανάλυσης. Η έρευνα στους κλάδους της κατασκευαστικής ανάλυσης που αντιστοιχούν στις διάφορες εκδοχές κατασκευαστικότητας διεξάγεται σε μια πλειάδα τυπικών ή όχι συστημάτων, των οποίων οι σχέσεις είναι ασαφείς. Αυτό το πρόβλημα αποβαίνει κρίσιμο για την ανάπτυξη της σχετικά νέας περιοχής των κατασκευαστικών ανάστροφων μαθηματικών. Η εργασία αυτή συμβάλλει σε μια πιο καθαρή εικόνα. Το Μέρος 1 περιέχει μία ακριβή σύγκριση των δύο ευρύτερα χρησιμοποιούμενων συστημάτων που τυποποιούν τον κοινό πυρήνα της κατασκευαστικής, της ενορατικής, της αναδρομικής και της κλασικής ανάλυσης, των Μ και EL, των Kleene και Troelstra, αντιστοίχως. Αποδεικνύεται ότι το EL είναι ασθενέστερο από το M και ότι η διαφορά τους αποτυπώνεται από μια αρχή η οποία εγγυάται την ύπαρξη χαρακτηριστικής συνάρτησης για κάθε αποκρίσιμο κατηγόρημα φυσικών αριθμών. Με παρόμοια επιχειρήματα προκύπτουν συγκρίσεις για τα περισσότερα από τα χρησιμοποιούμενα ελαχιστικά συστήματα. Στην κατασκευαστική ανάλυση χρησιμοποιούνται διάφορες αρχές επιλογής, συνέχειας και άλλες. Στο Μέρος 2, μελετώνται σχέσεις μεταξύ πολλών από αυτές, στις εκδοχές τους με μία συνθήκη μοναδικότητας, ένα χαρακτηριστικό από το οποίο απορρέουν ενδιαφέρουσες ιδιότητες, καθώς και σχέσεις μεταξύ αυτών των αρχών και μη κατασκευαστικών λογικών αρχών, στο πνεύμα των ανάστροφων μαθηματικών.This dissertation investigates certain aspects of the formalization and axiomatization of constructive analysis. The research in the branches of constructive analysis corresponding to the various forms of constructivism is carried out in a multitude of formal or informal systems, whose relations are unclear. This problem becomes quite crucial for the development of the relatively new field of constructive reverse mathematics. This work contributes to a clearer picture. Part 1 contains a precise comparison of the two most widely used systems which formalize the common core of constructive, intuitionistic, recursive and classical analysis, namely Kleene's M and Troelstra's EL. It is shown that EL is weaker than M and that their difference is captured by a function existence principle asserting that every decidable predicate of natural numbers has a characteristic function. Applying similar arguments, comparisons of most of the used minimal systems are obtained. In constructive analysis, various forms of choice principles, continuity principles and many others are used. Part 2 studies relations between many of them, in their versions having a uniqueness condition, a feature from which interesting properties follow, as well as relations between these principles and non-constructive logical principles, in the spirit of reverse mathematics

Realizability, Covers, and Sheaves I. Application to the Simply-Typed Lambda-Calculus

We present a general method for proving properties of typed λ-terms. This method is obtained by introducing a semantic notion of realizability which uses the notion of a cover algebra (as in abstract sheaf theory, a cover algebra being a Grothendieck topology in the case of a preorder). For this, we introduce a new class of semantic structures equipped with preorders, called pre-applicative structures. These structures need not be extensional. In this framework, a general realizability theorem can be shown. Kleene\u27s recursive realizability and a variant of Kreisel\u27s modified realizability both fit into this framework. Applying this theorem to the special case of the term model, yields a general theorem for proving properties of typed λ-terms, in particular, strong normalization and confluence. This approach clarifies the reducibility method by showing that the closure conditions on candidates of reducibility can be viewed as sheaf conditions. Part I of this paper applies the above approach to the simply-typed λ-calculus (with types →, ×, +, and ⊥). Part II of this paper deals with the second-order (polymorphic) λ-calculus (with types → and ∀)

The intended interpretation of the intuitionistic first-order logical operators.

The present thesis is an investigation on an open problem in mathematical logic: the problem of devising an explanation of the meaning of the intuitionistic first-order logical operators, which is both mathematically rigorous and faithful to the interpretation intended by the intuitionistic mathematicians who invented and have been using them. This problem has been outstanding since the early thirties, when it was formulated and addressed for the first time. The thesis includes a historical, expository part, which focuses on the contributions of Kolmogorov, Heyting, Gentzen and Kreisel, and a long and detailed discussion of the various interpretations which have been proposed by these and other authors. Special attention is paid to the decidability of the proof relation and the introduction of Kreisel's extra-clauses, to the various notions of 'canonical proof' and to the attempt to reformulate the semantic definition in terms of proofs from premises. In this thesis I include a conclusive argument to the effect that if one wants to withdraw the extra-clauses then one cannot maintain the concept of 'proof as the basic concept of the definition; instead, I describe an alternative interpretation based on the concept of a construction 'performing' the operations indicated by a given sentence, and I show that it is not equivalent to the verificationist interpretation. I point out a redundancy in the internal-pseudo-inductive-structure of Kreisel's interpretation and I propose a way to resolve it. Finally, I develop the interpretation in terms of proofs from premises and show that a precise formulation of it must also make use of non-inductive clauses, not for the definition of the conditional but -surprisingly enough- for the definitions of disjunction and of the existential quantifier

Provable and unprovable cases of transfinite induction in a theory obtained by adding to HAω so-called "term-forms" of the kind introduced by M. Yasugi

I begin by discussing several of the existing ways of proving the validity of transfinite induction up to ε₀ and argue that it is at least conceivable that there is room for a new proof that is more constructive than any of them. An attempt which I pay particular attention to is that made by Mariko Yasugi (1982). The centrepiece of her theory is the so-called "construction principle", a principle for defining computable functionals. I argue that, in principle, it ought to be possible to set up a theory whose terms denote or range over functionals of a sort constructed by a similar principle, in which the accessibility (a term to be defined below) of ε₀ is provable, yet which dispenses with quantifiers as well as with some strong axioms which she uses in order to achieve the same result. My theory, described in chapter 2, is called TF (for "term-forms"). In chapters 3, 4 and 5, a proof of the accessibility of ε₀ in TF is presented. This thesis ends (chapter 6) with a proof of the computability of the functionals that can be represented in TF

Proving Properties of Typed Lambda-Terms Using Realizability, Covers, and Sheaves (Preliminary Version)

We present a general method for proving properties of typed λ-terms. This method is obtained by introducing a semantic notion of realizability which uses the notion of a cover algebra (as in abstract sheaf theory). For this, we introduce a new class of semantic structures equipped with preorders, called pre-applicative structures. These structures need not be extensional. In this framework, a general realizability theorem can be shown. Kleene\u27s recursive realizability and a variant of Kreisel\u27s modified realizability both fit into this framework. Applying this theorem to the special case of the term model, yields a general theorem for proving properties of typed λ-terms, in particular, strong normalization and confluence. This approach clarifies the reducibility method by showing that the closure conditions on candidates of reducibility can be viewed as sheaf conditions. The above approach is applied to the simply-typed λ-calculus (with types →, x, +, and ⊥), and to the second-order (polymorphic λ-calculus (with types → and ∀2), for which it yields a new theorem

The continuum hypothesis : independence and truth-value

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Philosophy, 1974.MIT Humanities Library copy: issued in two vols.Leaf number 84 used twice. Also issued as a two-volume set.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 217-258).by Thomas S. Weston.Ph.D