English

Encoding many-valued logic in $\lambda$-calculus

Logic in Computer Science 2023-06-22 v6

Abstract

We will extend the well-known Church encoding of Boolean logic into λ\lambda-calculus to an encoding of McCarthy's 33-valued logic into a suitable infinitary extension of λ\lambda-calculus that identifies all unsolvables by \bot, where \bot is a fresh constant. This encoding refines to nn-valued logic for n{4,5}n\in\{4,5\}. Such encodings also exist for Church's original λI\lambda\mathbf{I}-calculus. By way of motivation we consider Russell's paradox, exploiting the fact that the same encoding allows us also to calculate truth values of infinite closed propositions in this infinitary setting.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1810.07667,
  title  = {Encoding many-valued logic in $\lambda$-calculus},
  author = {Fer-Jan de Vries},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1810.07667},
  year   = {2023}
}