HOL-λσ: an intentional first-order expression of higher-order logic

  • Authors:
  • Gilles Dowek;Therese Hardin;Claude Kirchner

  • Affiliations:
  • INRIA-Rocquencourt, B.P. 105, 78153 Le Chesnay Cedex, France, (Gilles.Dowek@inria.fr, http://coq.inria.fr/~dowek);LIP6 & INRIA, UPMC, 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France, (Therese.Hardin@lip6.fr, http://www-spi.lip6.fr/~hardin);LORIA & INRIA, 615, rue du Jardin Botanique, 54600 Villers-lèès-Nancy, France, (Claude.Kirchner@loria.fr, http://www.loria.fr/~ckirchne)

  • Venue:
  • Mathematical Structures in Computer Science
  • Year:
  • 2001

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Abstract

We give a first-order presentation of higher-order logic based on explicit substitutions. This presentation is intentionally equivalent to the usual presentation of higher-order logic based on λ-calculus, that is, a proposition can be proved without the extensionality axioms in one theory if and only if it can be in the other. We show that the Extended Narrowing and Resolution first-order proof-search method can be applied to this theory. In this way we get a step-by-step simulation of higher-order resolution. Hence, expressing higher-order logic as a first-order theory and applying a first-order proof search method is a relevant alternative to a direct implementation. In particular, the well-studied improvements of proof search for first-order logic could be reused at no cost for higher-order automated deduction. Moreover, as we stay in a first-order setting, extensions, such as equational higher-order resolution, may be easier to handle.