English

A minimalist two-level foundation for constructive mathematics

Logic 2024-04-04 v4

Abstract

We present a two-level theory to formalize constructive mathematics as advocated in a previous paper with G. Sambin. One level is given by an intensional type theory, called Minimal type theory. This theory extends the set-theoretic version introduced in the mentioned paper with collections. The other level is given by an extensional set theory which is interpreted in the first one by means of a quotient model. This two-level theory has two main features: it is minimal among the most relevant foundations for constructive mathematics; it is constructive thanks to the way the extensional level is linked to the intensional one which fulfills the "proofs-as-programs" paradigm and acts as a programming language.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0811.2774,
  title  = {A minimalist two-level foundation for constructive mathematics},
  author = {Maria Emilia Maietti},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0811.2774},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

46 pages, revised version (I corrected typos and omissions in the definition of canonical isomorphisms)

R2 v1 2026-06-21T11:42:36.908Z