1,413 research outputs found
Virtual Evidence: A Constructive Semantics for Classical Logics
This article presents a computational semantics for classical logic using
constructive type theory. Such semantics seems impossible because classical
logic allows the Law of Excluded Middle (LEM), not accepted in constructive
logic since it does not have computational meaning. However, the apparently
oracular powers expressed in the LEM, that for any proposition P either it or
its negation, not P, is true can also be explained in terms of constructive
evidence that does not refer to "oracles for truth." Types with virtual
evidence and the constructive impossibility of negative evidence provide
sufficient semantic grounds for classical truth and have a simple computational
meaning. This idea is formalized using refinement types, a concept of
constructive type theory used since 1984 and explained here. A new axiom
creating virtual evidence fully retains the constructive meaning of the logical
operators in classical contexts.
Key Words: classical logic, constructive logic, intuitionistic logic,
propositions-as-types, constructive type theory, refinement types, double
negation translation, computational content, virtual evidenc
Automated Synthesis of Tableau Calculi
This paper presents a method for synthesising sound and complete tableau
calculi. Given a specification of the formal semantics of a logic, the method
generates a set of tableau inference rules that can then be used to reason
within the logic. The method guarantees that the generated rules form a
calculus which is sound and constructively complete. If the logic can be shown
to admit finite filtration with respect to a well-defined first-order semantics
then adding a general blocking mechanism provides a terminating tableau
calculus. The process of generating tableau rules can be completely automated
and produces, together with the blocking mechanism, an automated procedure for
generating tableau decision procedures. For illustration we show the
workability of the approach for a description logic with transitive roles and
propositional intuitionistic logic.Comment: 32 page
Semantic A-translation and Super-consistency entail Classical Cut Elimination
We show that if a theory R defined by a rewrite system is super-consistent,
the classical sequent calculus modulo R enjoys the cut elimination property,
which was an open question. For such theories it was already known that proofs
strongly normalize in natural deduction modulo R, and that cut elimination
holds in the intuitionistic sequent calculus modulo R. We first define a
syntactic and a semantic version of Friedman's A-translation, showing that it
preserves the structure of pseudo-Heyting algebra, our semantic framework. Then
we relate the interpretation of a theory in the A-translated algebra and its
A-translation in the original algebra. This allows to show the stability of the
super-consistency criterion and the cut elimination theorem
Polarizing Double Negation Translations
Double-negation translations are used to encode and decode classical proofs
in intuitionistic logic. We show that, in the cut-free fragment, we can
simplify the translations and introduce fewer negations. To achieve this, we
consider the polarization of the formul{\ae}{} and adapt those translation to
the different connectives and quantifiers. We show that the embedding results
still hold, using a customized version of the focused classical sequent
calculus. We also prove the latter equivalent to more usual versions of the
sequent calculus. This polarization process allows lighter embeddings, and
sheds some light on the relationship between intuitionistic and classical
connectives
Finitary Topos for Locally Finite, Causal and Quantal Vacuum Einstein Gravity
Previous work on applications of Abstract Differential Geometry (ADG) to
discrete Lorentzian quantum gravity is brought to its categorical climax by
organizing the curved finitary spacetime sheaves of quantum causal sets
involved therein, on which a finitary (:locally finite), singularity-free,
background manifold independent and geometrically prequantized version of the
gravitational vacuum Einstein field equations were seen to hold, into a topos
structure. This topos is seen to be a finitary instance of both an elementary
and a Grothendieck topos, generalizing in a differential geometric setting, as
befits ADG, Sorkin's finitary substitutes of continuous spacetime topologies.
The paper closes with a thorough discussion of four future routes we could take
in order to further develop our topos-theoretic perspective on ADG-gravity
along certain categorical trends in current quantum gravity research.Comment: 49 pages, latest updated version (errata corrected, references
polished) Submitted to the International Journal of Theoretical Physic
A bifibrational reconstruction of Lawvere's presheaf hyperdoctrine
Combining insights from the study of type refinement systems and of monoidal
closed chiralities, we show how to reconstruct Lawvere's hyperdoctrine of
presheaves using a full and faithful embedding into a monoidal closed
bifibration living now over the compact closed category of small categories and
distributors. Besides revealing dualities which are not immediately apparent in
the traditional presentation of the presheaf hyperdoctrine, this reconstruction
leads us to an axiomatic treatment of directed equality predicates (modelled by
hom presheaves), realizing a vision initially set out by Lawvere (1970). It
also leads to a simple calculus of string diagrams (representing presheaves)
that is highly reminiscent of C. S. Peirce's existential graphs for predicate
logic, refining an earlier interpretation of existential graphs in terms of
Boolean hyperdoctrines by Brady and Trimble. Finally, we illustrate how this
work extends to a bifibrational setting a number of fundamental ideas of linear
logic.Comment: Identical to the final version of the paper as appears in proceedings
of LICS 2016, formatted for on-screen readin
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