Ludics

Last updated

In proof theory, ludics is an analysis of the principles governing inference rules of mathematical logic. Key features of ludics include notion of compound connectives, using a technique known as focusing or focalisation (invented by the computer scientist Jean-Marc Andreoli), and its use of locations or loci over a base instead of propositions.

More precisely, ludics tries to retrieve known logical connectives and proof behaviours by following the paradigm of interactive computation, similarly to what is done in game semantics to which it is closely related. By abstracting the notion of formulae and focusing on their concrete uses—that is distinct occurrences—it provides an abstract syntax for computer science, as loci can be seen as pointers on memory.

The primary achievement of ludics is the discovery of a relationship between two natural, but distinct notions of type, or proposition.

The first view, which might be termed the proof-theoretic or Gentzen-style interpretation of propositions, says that the meaning of a proposition arises from its introduction and elimination rules. Focalization refines this viewpoint by distinguishing between positive propositions, whose meaning arises from their introduction rules, and negative propositions, whose meaning arises from their elimination rules. In focused calculi, it is possible to define positive connectives by giving only their introduction rules, with the shape of the elimination rules being forced by this choice. (Symmetrically, negative connectives can be defined in focused calculi by giving only the elimination rules, with the introduction rules forced by this choice.)

The second view, which might be termed the computational or Brouwer–Heyting–Kolmogorov interpretation of propositions, takes the view that we fix a computational system up front, and then give a realizability interpretation of propositions to give them constructive content. For example, a realizer for the proposition "A implies B" is a computable function that takes a realizer for A, and uses it to compute a realizer for B. Realizability models characterize realizers for propositions in terms of their visible behavior, and not in terms of their internal structure.

Girard shows that for second-order affine linear logic, given a computational system with nontermination and error stops as effects, realizability and focalization give the same meaning to types.

Ludics was proposed by the logician Jean-Yves Girard. His paper introducing ludics, Locus solum: from the rules of logic to the logic of rules, has some features that may be seen as eccentric for a publication in mathematical logic (such as illustrations of skunks). The intent of these features is to enforce the point of view of Jean-Yves Girard at the time of its writing. And, thus, it offers to readers the possibility to understand ludics independently of their backgrounds.[ dubious discuss ][ citation needed ]

  1. Girard, J.-Y., Locus solum: from the rules of logic to the logic of rules (.pdf), Mathematical Structures in Computer Science, 11, 301506, 2001.
  2. Girard reading group at Carnegie-Mellon University (a wiki about Locus Solum)

Related Research Articles

First-order logic—also called predicate logic, predicate calculus, quantificational logic—is a collection of formal systems used in mathematics, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science. First-order logic uses quantified variables over non-logical objects, and allows the use of sentences that contain variables. Rather than propositions such as "all men are mortal", in first-order logic one can have expressions in the form "for all x, if x is a man, then x is mortal"; where "for all x" is a quantifier, x is a variable, and "... is a man" and "... is mortal" are predicates. This distinguishes it from propositional logic, which does not use quantifiers or relations; in this sense, propositional logic is the foundation of first-order logic.

The propositional calculus is a branch of logic. It is also called (first-order) propositional logic, statement logic, sentential calculus, sentential logic, or sometimes zeroth-order logic. It deals with propositions and relations between propositions, including the construction of arguments based on them. Compound propositions are formed by connecting propositions by logical connectives representing the truth functions of conjunction, disjunction, implication, biconditional, and negation. Some sources include other connectives, as in the table below.

In logic and proof theory, natural deduction is a kind of proof calculus in which logical reasoning is expressed by inference rules closely related to the "natural" way of reasoning. This contrasts with Hilbert-style systems, which instead use axioms as much as possible to express the logical laws of deductive reasoning.

Proof theory is a major branch of mathematical logic and theoretical computer science within which proofs are treated as formal mathematical objects, facilitating their analysis by mathematical techniques. Proofs are typically presented as inductively-defined data structures such as lists, boxed lists, or trees, which are constructed according to the axioms and rules of inference of a given logical system. Consequently, proof theory is syntactic in nature, in contrast to model theory, which is semantic in nature.

In mathematical logic, sequent calculus is a style of formal logical argumentation in which every line of a proof is a conditional tautology instead of an unconditional tautology. Each conditional tautology is inferred from other conditional tautologies on earlier lines in a formal argument according to rules and procedures of inference, giving a better approximation to the natural style of deduction used by mathematicians than David Hilbert's earlier style of formal logic, in which every line was an unconditional tautology. More subtle distinctions may exist; for example, propositions may implicitly depend upon non-logical axioms. In that case, sequents signify conditional theorems of a first-order theory rather than conditional tautologies.

In programming language theory and proof theory, the Curry–Howard correspondence is the direct relationship between computer programs and mathematical proofs. It is also known as the Curry–Howard isomorphism or equivalence, or the proofs-as-programs and propositions- or formulae-as-types interpretation.

In programming language theory, semantics is the rigorous mathematical study of the meaning of programming languages. Semantics assigns computational meaning to valid strings in a programming language syntax. It is closely related to, and often crosses over with, the semantics of mathematical proofs.

Linear logic is a substructural logic proposed by French logician Jean-Yves Girard as a refinement of classical and intuitionistic logic, joining the dualities of the former with many of the constructive properties of the latter. Although the logic has also been studied for its own sake, more broadly, ideas from linear logic have been influential in fields such as programming languages, game semantics, and quantum physics, as well as linguistics, particularly because of its emphasis on resource-boundedness, duality, and interaction.

Game semantics is an approach to formal semantics that grounds the concepts of truth or validity on game-theoretic concepts, such as the existence of a winning strategy for a player, somewhat resembling Socratic dialogues or medieval theory of Obligationes.

Noncommutative logic is an extension of linear logic that combines the commutative connectives of linear logic with the noncommutative multiplicative connectives of the Lambek calculus. Its sequent calculus relies on the structure of order varieties, and the correctness criterion for its proof nets is given in terms of partial permutations. It also has a denotational semantics in which formulas are interpreted by modules over some specific Hopf algebras.

In proof theory, proof nets are a geometrical method of representing proofs that eliminates two forms of bureaucracy that differentiate proofs: (A) irrelevant syntactical features of regular proof calculi, and (B) the order of rules applied in a derivation. In this way, the formal properties of proof identity correspond more closely to the intuitively desirable properties. This distinguishes proof nets from regular proof calculi such as the natural deduction calculus and the sequent calculus, where these phenomena are present. Proof nets were introduced by Jean-Yves Girard.

In mathematical logic, structural proof theory is the subdiscipline of proof theory that studies proof calculi that support a notion of analytic proof, a kind of proof whose semantic properties are exposed. When all the theorems of a logic formalised in a structural proof theory have analytic proofs, then the proof theory can be used to demonstrate such things as consistency, provide decision procedures, and allow mathematical or computational witnesses to be extracted as counterparts to theorems, the kind of task that is more often given to model theory.

Logics for computability are formulations of logic that capture some aspect of computability as a basic notion. This usually involves a mix of special logical connectives as well as a semantics that explains how the logic is to be interpreted in a computational way.

Logic is the formal science of using reason and is considered a branch of both philosophy and mathematics and to a lesser extent computer science. Logic investigates and classifies the structure of statements and arguments, both through the study of formal systems of inference and the study of arguments in natural language. The scope of logic can therefore be very large, ranging from core topics such as the study of fallacies and paradoxes, to specialized analyses of reasoning such as probability, correct reasoning, and arguments involving causality. One of the aims of logic is to identify the correct and incorrect inferences. Logicians study the criteria for the evaluation of arguments.

In proof theory, the Geometry of Interaction (GoI) was introduced by Jean-Yves Girard shortly after his work on linear logic. In linear logic, proofs can be seen as various kinds of networks as opposed to the flat tree structures of sequent calculus. To distinguish the real proof nets from all the possible networks, Girard devised a criterion involving trips in the network. Trips can in fact be seen as some kind of operator acting on the proof. Drawing from this observation, Girard described directly this operator from the proof and has given a formula, the so-called execution formula, encoding the process of cut elimination at the level of operators. Subsequent constructions by Girard proposed variants in which proofs are represented as flows, or operators in von Neumann algebras. Those models were later generalised by Seiller's Interaction Graphs models.

In mathematical logic, realizability is a collection of methods in proof theory used to study constructive proofs and extract additional information from them. Formulas from a formal theory are "realized" by objects, known as "realizers", in a way that knowledge of the realizer gives knowledge about the truth of the formula. There are many variations of realizability; exactly which class of formulas is studied and which objects are realizers differ from one variation to another.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruy de Queiroz</span>

Ruy J. Guerra B. de Queiroz is an associate professor at Universidade Federal de Pernambuco and holds significant works in the research fields of Mathematical logic, proof theory, foundations of mathematics and philosophy of mathematics. He is the founder of the Workshop on Logic, Language, Information and Computation (WoLLIC), which has been organised annually since 1994, typically in June or July.

In mathematical logic, focused proofs are a family of analytic proofs that arise through goal-directed proof-search, and are a topic of study in structural proof theory and reductive logic. They form the most general definition of goal-directed proof-search—in which someone chooses a formula and performs hereditary reductions until the result meets some condition. The extremal case where reduction only terminates when axioms are reached forms the sub-family of uniform proofs.

This is a glossary of logic. Logic is the study of the principles of valid reasoning and argumentation.