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In mathematics,
logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premise ...
, and
computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...
, a type theory is the formal presentation of a specific type system, and in general type theory is the academic study of type systems. Some type theories serve as alternatives to set theory as a foundation of mathematics. Two influential type theories that were proposed as foundations are
Alonzo Church Alonzo Church (June 14, 1903 – August 11, 1995) was an American mathematician, computer scientist, logician, philosopher, professor and editor who made major contributions to mathematical logic and the foundations of theoretical computer scien ...
's typed λ-calculus and Per Martin-Löf's
intuitionistic type theory Intuitionistic type theory (also known as constructive type theory, or Martin-Löf type theory) is a type theory and an alternative foundation of mathematics. Intuitionistic type theory was created by Per Martin-Löf, a Swedish mathematician an ...
. Most computerized proof-writing systems use a type theory for their foundation. A common one is Thierry Coquand's
Calculus of Inductive Constructions In Uzbekistan, mathematical logic and computer science, the calculus of constructions (CoC) is a type theory created by Thierry Coquand. It can serve as both a typed programming language and as Constructivism (mathematics), constructive Foundations ...
.


History

Type theory was created to avoid a paradox in a mathematical foundation based on naive set theory and
formal logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premis ...
.
Russell's paradox In mathematical logic, Russell's paradox (also known as Russell's antinomy) is a set-theoretic paradox discovered by the British philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell in 1901. Russell's paradox shows that every set theory that contains ...
, which was discovered by
Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...
, existed because a set could be defined using "all possible sets", which included itself. Between 1902 and 1908, Bertrand Russell proposed various "theories of type" to fix the problem. By 1908 Russell arrived at a "ramified" theory of types together with an " axiom of reducibility" both of which featured prominently in Whitehead and Russell's ''
Principia Mathematica The ''Principia Mathematica'' (often abbreviated ''PM'') is a three-volume work on the foundations of mathematics written by mathematician–philosophers Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell and published in 1910, 1912, and 1913. ...
'' published between 1910 and 1913. This system avoided Russell's paradox by creating a hierarchy of types and then assigning each concrete mathematical entity to a type. Entities of a given type are built exclusively of
subtype Subtype may refer to: * Viral subtypes, such as Subtypes of HIV * Subtyping In programming language theory, subtyping (also subtype polymorphism or inclusion polymorphism) is a form of type polymorphism in which a subtype is a datatype that is ...
s of that type, thus preventing an entity from being defined using itself. Russell's theory of types ruled out the possibility of a set being a member of itself. Types were not always used in logic. There were other techniques to avoid Russell's paradox.''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'
(rev. Mon Oct 12, 2020) Russell’s Paradox
3. Early Responses to the Paradox
Types did gain a hold when used with one particular logic,
Alonzo Church Alonzo Church (June 14, 1903 – August 11, 1995) was an American mathematician, computer scientist, logician, philosopher, professor and editor who made major contributions to mathematical logic and the foundations of theoretical computer scien ...
's lambda calculus. The most famous early example is Church's
simply typed lambda calculus The simply typed lambda calculus (\lambda^\to), a form of type theory, is a typed interpretation of the lambda calculus with only one type constructor (\to) that builds function types. It is the canonical and simplest example of a typed lambda c ...
. Church's theory of types helped the formal system avoid the
Kleene–Rosser paradox In mathematics, the Kleene–Rosser paradox is a paradox that shows that certain systems of formal logic are inconsistent, in particular the version of Haskell Curry's combinatory logic introduced in 1930, and Alonzo Church's original lambda ca ...
that afflicted the original untyped lambda calculus. Church demonstrated that it could serve as a foundation of mathematics and it was referred to as a
higher-order logic mathematics and logic, a higher-order logic is a form of predicate logic that is distinguished from first-order logic by additional quantifiers and, sometimes, stronger semantics. Higher-order logics with their standard semantics are more express ...
. The phrase "type theory" now generally refers to a typed system based around lambda calculus. One influential system is Per Martin-Löf's
intuitionistic type theory Intuitionistic type theory (also known as constructive type theory, or Martin-Löf type theory) is a type theory and an alternative foundation of mathematics. Intuitionistic type theory was created by Per Martin-Löf, a Swedish mathematician an ...
, which was proposed as a foundation for
constructive mathematics In the philosophy of mathematics, constructivism asserts that it is necessary to find (or "construct") a specific example of a mathematical object in order to prove that an example exists. Contrastingly, in classical mathematics, one can prove th ...
. Another is Thierry Coquand's
calculus of constructions In mathematical logic and computer science, the calculus of constructions (CoC) is a type theory created by Thierry Coquand. It can serve as both a typed programming language and as constructive foundation for mathematics. For this second reason, ...
, which is used as the foundation by
Coq Coq is an interactive theorem prover first released in 1989. It allows for expressing mathematical assertions, mechanically checks proofs of these assertions, helps find formal proofs, and extracts a certified program from the constructive proof ...
, Lean, and other "proof assistants" (computerized proof writing programs). Type theories are an area of active research, as demonstrated by
homotopy type theory In mathematical logic and computer science, homotopy type theory (HoTT ) refers to various lines of development of intuitionistic type theory, based on the interpretation of types as objects to which the intuition of (abstract) homotopy theory a ...
.


Introduction

There are many type theories, which makes it difficult to produce a comprehensive taxonomy; this article is not an exhaustive categorization. What follows is an introduction for those unfamiliar with type theory, covering some of the major approaches.


Basics


Terms and types

In type theory, every term has a type. A term and its type are often written together as "''term'' : ''type''". A common type to include in a type theory is the Natural numbers, often written as "\mathbb N" or "nat". Another is Boolean logic values. So, some very simple terms with their types are: * 0 : nat * 42 : nat * true : bool Terms can be built out of other terms using function calls. In type theory, a function call is called "function application". Function application takes a term of a given type and results in a term of another given type. Function application is written "''function'' ''argument'' ''argument'' ...", instead of the conventional "''function''(''argument'',''argument'', ...)". For natural numbers, it is possible to define a function called "add" that takes two natural numbers. Thus, some more terms with their types are: * add 0 0 : nat * add 2 3 : nat * add 1 (add 1 (add 1 0)) : nat In the last term, parentheses were added to indicate the order of operations. Technically, most type theories require the parentheses to be present for every operation, but, in practice, they are not written and authors assume readers can use precedence and associativity to know where they are. For similar ease, it is a common notation to write "x + y" instead of "add x y". So, the above terms might be rewritten as: * 0 + 0 : nat * 2 + 3 : nat * 1 + (1 + (1 + 0)) : nat Terms may also contain variables. Variables always have a type. So, assuming "x" and "y" are variables of type "nat", the following are also valid terms: * x : nat * x + 2 : nat * x + (x + y) : nat There are more types than "nat" and "bool". We have already seen the term "add", which is not a "nat", but a function that, when applied to two "nat"s, computes to a "nat". The type of "add" will be covered later. First, we need to describe "computes to".


Computation

Type theory has a built-in notation of computation. The following terms are all different: * 1 + 4 : nat * 3 + 2 : nat * 0 + 5 : nat but they all compute to the term "5 : nat". In type theory, we use the words "reduction" and "reduce" to refer to computation. So, we say "0 + 5 : nat" reduces to "5 : nat". It can be written "0 + 5 : nat \twoheadrightarrow 5 : nat". The computation is mechanical, accomplished by rewriting the term's syntax. Terms that contain variables can be reduced too. So the term "x + (1 + 4) : nat" reduces to "x + 5 : nat". (We can reduce any sub-term within a term, thanks to the Church-Rosser theorem.) A term without any variables that cannot be reduced further is a "canonical term". All the terms above reduce to "5 : nat", which is a canonical term. The canonical terms of the natural numbers are: * 0 : nat * 1 : nat * 2 : nat * etc. Obviously, terms that compute to the same term are equal. So, assuming "x : nat", the terms "x + (1 + 4) : nat" and "x + (4 + 1) : nat" are equal because they both reduce to "x + 5 : nat". When two terms are equal, they can be substituted for each other. Equality is a complex topic in type theory and there are many kinds of equality. This kind of equality, where two terms compute to the same term, is called "judgemental equality".


Functions

In type theory, functions are terms. Functions can either be lambda terms or defined "by rule".


Lambda terms

A lambda term looks like "(λ ''variablename'' : ''type1'' . ''term'')" and has type "''type1'' \to ''type2''". The type "''type1'' \to ''type2''" indicates that the lambda term is a function that takes a parameter of type "''type1''" and computes to a term of type "''type2''". The term inside the lambda term must be a value of "''type2''", assuming the variable has type "''type1''". An example of a lambda term is this function which doubles its argument: * (λ x : nat . (add x x)) : nat \to nat The variable name is "x" and the variable has type "nat". The term "(add x x)" has type "nat", assuming "x : nat". Thus, the lambda term has type "nat \to nat", which means if it is given a "nat" as an argument, it will compute to a "nat". Reduction (a.k.a. computation) is defined for lambda terms. When the function is applied (a.k.a. called), the argument is substituted for the parameter. Earlier, we saw that function application is written by putting the parameter after the function term. So, if we want to call the above function with the parameter "5" of type "nat", we write: * (λ x : nat . (add x x)) 5 : nat The lambda term was type "nat \to nat", which meant that given a "nat" as an argument, it will produce a term of type "nat". Since we have given it the argument "5", the above term has type "nat". Reduction works by substituting the argument "5" for the parameter "x" in the term "(add x x)", so the term computes to: * (add 5 5) : nat which obviously computes to * 10 : nat A lambda term is often called an "anonymous function" because it has no name. Often, to make things easier to read, a name is given to a lambda term. This is merely a notation and has no mathematical meaning. Some authors call it "notational equality". A name might be given to the function above using the notation: * double : nat \to nat ::= (λ x : nat . (add x x)) This is the same function as above, just a different way to write it. So the term * double 5 : nat still computes to * 10 : nat


Dependent typing

Dependent typing is when the type returned by a function depends on the value of its argument. For example, when a type theory has a rule that defines the type "bool", it also defines the function "if". The function "if" takes 3 arguments and "if true b c" computes to "b" and "if false b c" computes to "c". But what is the type of "if a b c"? If "b" and "c" have the same type, it is obvious: "if a b c" has the same type as "b" and "c". Thus, assuming "a : bool", * if a 2 4 : nat * if a false true : bool But if "b" and "c" have different types, then the type of "if a b c" depends on the value of "a". We use the symbol "Π" to indicate a function that takes an argument and returns a type. Assuming we have some types "B" and C" and "a : bool", "b : B" and "c : C", then * if a b c : (Π a : bool . B \to C \to if a B C) That is, the type of the "if" term is either the type of the second or third argument, depending on the value of the first argument. In actuality, "if a B C" isn't defined using "if", but that gets into details too complicated for this introduction. Because the type can contain computation, dependent typing is amazingly powerful. When mathematicians say "there exists a number x such that x is prime" or "there exists a number x such that property P(x) holds", it can be expressed as a dependent type. That is, the property is proven for the specific "x" and that is visible in the type of the result. There are many details to dependent typing. They are too long and complicated for this introduction. See the article on dependent typing and the
lambda cube In mathematical logic and type theory, the λ-cube (also written lambda cube) is a framework introduced by Henk Barendregt to investigate the different dimensions in which the calculus of constructions is a generalization of the simply typed ...
for more information.


Universes

Π-terms return a type. So what is the type of their return value? Well, there must be a type that contains types. A type that contains other types is called a "
universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the universe. ...
". It is often written with the symbol U. Sometimes there is a hierarchy of universes, with "U_0 : U_1", "U_1 : U_2", etc.. If a universe contains itself, it can lead to paradoxes like Girard's Paradox. For example:


Common "by rule" types and terms

Type theories are defined by their
rules of inference In the philosophy of logic, a rule of inference, inference rule or transformation rule is a logical form consisting of a function which takes premises, analyzes their syntax, and returns a conclusion (or conclusions). For example, the rule of ...
. There are rules for a "functional core", described above, and rules that create types and terms. Below is a non-exhaustive list of common types and their associated terms. The list ends with "inductive types", which is a powerful technique that is able to construct all the other ones in the list. The mathematical foundations used by the proof assistants "Coq" and "Lean" are based on the "Calculus for Inductive Constructions" which is the "Calculus of Constructions" (its "functional core") with inductive types.


Empty type

The empty type has no terms. The type is usually written "\bot" or "\mathbb 0". It is used to show that something is uncomputable. If for a type "A", you can create a function of type "A \to \bot", you know that "A" has no terms. An example for the type "A" might be "there exists a number x such that both x is even and x is odd". (See "Product Type" below for how the example "A" is constructed.) When a type has no terms, we say it is "uninhabited".


Unit type

The
unit type In the area of mathematical logic and computer science known as type theory, a unit type is a type that allows only one value (and thus can hold no information). The carrier (underlying set) associated with a unit type can be any singleton set. ...
has exactly 1 canonical term. The type is written "\top" or "\mathbb 1" and the single canonical term is written "*". The unit type is used to show that something exists or is computable. If for a type "A", you can create a function of type "\top \to A", you know that "A" has one or more terms. When a type has at least 1 term, we say it is "inhabited".


Boolean type

The Boolean type has exactly 2 canonical terms. The type is usually written "bool" or "\mathbb B" or "\mathbb 2". The canonical terms are usually "true" and "false". The Boolean type is defined with an eliminator function "if" such that: * if true b c \twoheadrightarrow b * if false b c \twoheadrightarrow c


Product type

The product type has terms that are
ordered pairs In mathematics, an ordered pair (''a'', ''b'') is a pair of objects. The order in which the objects appear in the pair is significant: the ordered pair (''a'', ''b'') is different from the ordered pair (''b'', ''a'') unless ''a'' = ''b''. (In con ...
. For types "A" and "B", the product type is written "A \times B". Canonical terms are created by the constructor function "pair". The terms are "pair a b", where "a" is a term of type "A" and "b" is a term of type "B". The product type is defined with eliminator functions "first" and "second" such that: * first (pair a b) \twoheadrightarrow a * second (pair a b) \twoheadrightarrow b Besides ordered pairs, this type is used for the logical operator "and", because it holds an "A" and a "B". It is also used for intersection, because it holds one of both types. If a type theory has dependent typing, it has dependent pairs. In a dependent pair, the second type depends on the value of the first term. Thus, the type is written "\Sigma a:A . B(a)" where "B" has type "A \to U". It is useful when showing
existence Existence is the ability of an entity to interact with reality. In philosophy, it refers to the ontological property of being. Etymology The term ''existence'' comes from Old French ''existence'', from Medieval Latin ''existentia/exsistentia' ...
of an "a" with property "B(a)".


Sum type

The sum type is a "tagged union". That is, for types "A" and "B", the type "A + B" holds either a term of type "A" or a term of type "B" and it knows which one it holds. The type comes with the constructors "injectionLeft" and "injectionRight". The call "injectionLeft a" takes "a : A" and returns a canonical term of type "A + B". Similarly, injectionRight b" takes "b : B" and returns a canonical term of type "A + B". The type is defined with an eliminator function "match" such that for a type "C" and functions "f : A \to C" and "g : B \to C": * match (injectionLeft a) C f g \twoheadrightarrow (f a) * match (injectionRight b) C f g \twoheadrightarrow (g b) The sum type is used for
logical or In logic, disjunction is a logical connective typically notated as \lor and read aloud as "or". For instance, the English language sentence "it is raining or it is snowing" can be represented in logic using the disjunctive formula R \lor S ...
and for
union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...
.


Natural numbers

The natural numbers are usually implemented in the style of Peano Arithmetic. There is a canonical term, "0 : nat" for zero. Canonical values larger than zero use the constructor function "S : nat \to nat". Thus, "S 0" is one. "S (S 0)" is two. "S (S (S 0)))" is three. Etc. The decimal numbers are just notationally equal to those terms. * 1 : nat ::= S 0 * 2 : nat ::= S (S 0) * 3 : nat ::= S (S (S 0)) * ... The natural numbers are defined with an eliminator function "R" that uses recursion to define a function for all nats. It takes a function "P : nat \to U" which is the type of the function to define. It also takes a term "PZ : P 0" which is the value at zero and a function "PS : P n \to P (S n)" which says how to transform the value at "n" into the value at "n + 1". Thus, its computation rules are: * R P PZ PS 0 \twoheadrightarrow PZ * R P PZ PS (S n) \twoheadrightarrow PS (R P PZ PS n) The function "add", that was used earlier, can be defined using "R". * add : nat\tonat\tonat ::= R (λ n:nat . nat\tonat) (λ n:nat . n) (λ g:nat\tonat . (λ m:nat . S (g m)))


Identity type

The identity type is the third concept of equality in type theory. The first is "notational equality", which is for definitions like "2 : nat ::= (S (S 0))" that have no mathematical meaning but are useful to readers. The second is "judgemental equality", which is when two terms compute to the same term, like "x + (1 + 4)" and "x + (4 + 1)", which both compute to "x + 5". But type theory needs another form of equality, known as the "identity type" or "propositional equality". The reason it needs the identity type is because some equal terms do not compute to the same term. Assuming "x : nat", the terms "x + 1" and "1 + x" do not compute to the same term. Recall that "+" is a notation for the function "add", which is a notation for the function "R". We cannot compute on "R" until the value for "x" is specified and, until it is specified, two different calls to "R" will not compute to the same term. An identity type requires two terms "a" and "b" of the same type and is written "a = b". So, for "x + 1" and "1 + x", the type would be "x+1 = 1+x". Canonical terms are created with the constructor "reflexivity". The call "reflexivity a" takes a term "a" and returns a canonical term of the type "a = a". Computation with the identity type is done with the eliminator function "J". The function "J" lets a term dependent on "a", "b", and a term of type "a = b" to be rewritten so that "b" is replaced by "a". While "J" is one directional, only able to substitute "b" with "a", it can be proven that the identity type is reflexive,
symmetric Symmetry (from grc, συμμετρία "agreement in dimensions, due proportion, arrangement") in everyday language refers to a sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance. In mathematics, "symmetry" has a more precise definiti ...
and transitive. If the canonical terms are always "a=a" and "x+1" does not compute to the same term as "1+x", how do we create a term of "x+1 = 1+x"? We use the "R" function. (See "Natural Numbers" above.) The "R" function's argument "P" is defined to be "(λ x:nat . x+1 = 1+x)". The other arguments act like the parts of an induction proof, where "PZ : P 0" becomes the base case "0+1 = 1+0" and "PS : P n \to P (S n)" becomes the inductive case. Essentially, this says that when "x+1 = 1+x" has "x" replaced with a canonical value, the expression will be the same as "reflexivity (x+1)". This application of the function "R" has type "x : nat \to x+1 = 1+x". We can use it and the function "J" to substituted "1+x" for "x+1" in any term. In this way, the identity type is able to capture equalities that are not possible with judgemental equality. To be clear, it is possible to create the type "0 = 1", but there will not be a way to create terms of that type. Without a term of type "0 = 1", it will not be possible to use the function "J" to substitute "0" for "1" in another term. The complexities of equality in type theory make it an active research area, see
homotopy type theory In mathematical logic and computer science, homotopy type theory (HoTT ) refers to various lines of development of intuitionistic type theory, based on the interpretation of types as objects to which the intuition of (abstract) homotopy theory a ...
.


Inductive types

Inductive types is a way to create a large variety of types. In fact, all the types described above and more can be defined using the rules of inductive types. Once the type's constructors are specified, the eliminator functions and computation is determined by
structural recursion Structural induction is a proof method that is used in mathematical logic (e.g., in the proof of Łoś' theorem), computer science, graph theory, and some other mathematical fields. It is a generalization of mathematical induction over natural nu ...
. There are similar, more powerful ways to create types. These include induction-recursion and
induction-induction In intuitionistic type theory (ITT), some discipline within mathematical logic, induction-induction is for simultaneously declaring some inductive type and some inductive predicate over this type. An inductive definition is given by rules for ge ...
. There is also a way to create similar types using only lambda terms, called Scott encoding. (NOTE: Type theories do not usually include coinductive types. They represent an infinite data type and most type theories limit themselves to functions that can be proven to halt.)


Differences from set theory

The traditional foundation for mathematics has been set theory paired with a logic. The most common one cited is Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory, known as "ZF" or, with the Axiom of choice, "ZFC". Type theories differ from this foundation in a number of ways. * Set theory has both
rules Rule or ruling may refer to: Education * Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE), a university in Cambodia Human activity * The exercise of political or personal control by someone with authority or power * Business rule, a rule pert ...
and
axioms An axiom, postulate, or assumption is a statement that is taken to be true, to serve as a premise or starting point for further reasoning and arguments. The word comes from the Ancient Greek word (), meaning 'that which is thought worthy or f ...
, while type theories only have rules. Set theories are built on top of logic. Thus, ZFC is defined by both the rules of
first-order logic First-order logic—also known as predicate logic, quantificational logic, and first-order predicate calculus—is a collection of formal systems used in mathematics, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science. First-order logic uses quantifie ...
and its own axioms. (An axiom is a logical statement accepted as true without a logical derivation.) Type theories, in general, do not have axioms and are defined by their rules of inference. * Set theory and logic have the
law of excluded middle In logic, the law of excluded middle (or the principle of excluded middle) states that for every proposition, either this proposition or its negation is true. It is one of the so-called three laws of thought, along with the law of noncontradi ...
. That is, every theorem is true or false. When a type theory defines the concepts of "and" and "or" as types, it leads to
intuitionistic logic Intuitionistic logic, sometimes more generally called constructive logic, refers to systems of symbolic logic that differ from the systems used for classical logic by more closely mirroring the notion of constructive proof. In particular, systems ...
, which does not have the law of excluded middle. However, the law can be proven for some types. * In set theory, an element is not restricted to one set. The element can appear in subsets and unions with other sets. In type theory, terms (generally) belong to only one type. Where a subset would be used, type theory can use a predicate function or use a dependently-typed product type, where each element x is paired with a proof that the subset's property holds for x. Where a union would be used, type theory uses the sum type, which contains new canonical terms. * Type theory has a built-in notion of computation. Thus, "1+1" and "2" are different terms in type theory, but they compute to the same value. Moreover, functions are defined computationally as lambda terms. In set theory, "1+1=2" means that "1+1" is just another way to refer the value "2". Type theory's computation does require a complicated concept of equality. * Set theory usually encodes numbers as sets. (0 is the empty set, 1 is a set containing the empty set, etc. See
Set-theoretic definition of natural numbers In set theory, several ways have been proposed to construct the natural numbers. These include the representation via von Neumann ordinals, commonly employed in axiomatic set theory, and a system based on equinumerosity that was proposed by Gottlob ...
.) Type theory can encode numbers as functions using
Church encoding In mathematics, Church encoding is a means of representing data and operators in the lambda calculus. The Church numerals are a representation of the natural numbers using lambda notation. The method is named for Alonzo Church, who first encoded da ...
or more naturally as inductive types. The constructors "0" and "S" created by the inductive type closely resemble Peano's axioms. * Set theory has set-builder notation. It can create any set that can be defined. This allows it to create
Uncountable set In mathematics, an uncountable set (or uncountably infinite set) is an infinite set that contains too many elements to be countable. The uncountability of a set is closely related to its cardinal number: a set is uncountable if its cardinal nu ...
s. Type theories are syntactic, which limits them to a countably infinite terms. Additionally, most type theories require computation to always halt and limit themselves to recursively generable terms. As a result, most type theories do not use the Real numbers but the
Computable number In mathematics, computable numbers are the real numbers that can be computed to within any desired precision by a finite, terminating algorithm. They are also known as the recursive numbers, effective numbers or the computable reals or recursive ...
s. * In set theory, the Axiom of Choice is an axiom and is controversial, particularly when applied to uncountable sets. In type theory, the equivalent statement is a theorem (type) and is provable (inhabited by a term). * In type theory, proofs are mathematical objects. The type "x+1 = 1+x" cannot be used unless there is a term of the type. That term represents a proof that "x+1 = 1+x". Thus, type theory opens up proofs to be studied as mathematical objects. Proponents of type theory will also point out its connection to constructive mathematics through the BHK interpretation, its connected to logic by the Curry–Howard isomorphism, and its connections to Category theory.


Technical details

A type theory is a mathematical logic. It is a collection of
rules of inference In the philosophy of logic, a rule of inference, inference rule or transformation rule is a logical form consisting of a function which takes premises, analyzes their syntax, and returns a conclusion (or conclusions). For example, the rule of ...
that result in judgements. Most logics have judgements meaning "The term x is true." or "The term x is a well-formed formula.". A type theory has additional judgements that define types and relate terms to types.


Terms

A term in logic is recursively defined as a constant symbol, variable, or a function application, where a term is applied to another term. Some constant symbols will be "0" of the natural numbers, "true" of the Booleans, and functions like "S" and "if". Thus some terms are "0", "(S 0)", "(S (S x))", and "if true 0 (S 0)".


Judgements

Most type theories have 4 judgements: * "T is a type." * "t is a term of type T." * "Type T_1 is equal to type T_2." * "Terms t_1 and t_2 are both of type T and are equal." The judgements can be made under an assumption. Thus, we might say, "assuming x is a term of type "bool" and y is a term of type "nat" , (if x y y) is a term of type "nat"". The mathematical notation for assumptions is a comma-separate list of "''term'' : ''type''" that precede the turnstile symbol '\vdash'. Thus, the example statement is formally written: * x:bool, y:nat \vdash (if x y y) : nat If there are no assumptions, there will be nothing to the left of the turnstile. * \vdash S : nat \to nat The list of assumptions is called the "context". It is very common to see the symbol '\Gamma' used to represent some or all of the assumptions. Thus, the formal notation for the 4 different judgements is usually: (NOTE: The judgement of equality of terms is where the phrase "judgemental equality" comes from. ) The judgements enforce that every term has a type. The type will restrict which rules can be applied to a term.


Rules

A type theory's
rules Rule or ruling may refer to: Education * Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE), a university in Cambodia Human activity * The exercise of political or personal control by someone with authority or power * Business rule, a rule pert ...
say what judgements can be made, based on the existence of other judgements. The rules are expressed using a horizontal line, with the required input judgements above the line and the resulting judgement below the line. The rule for creating a lambda term is: \begin \Gamma , a:A \vdash b : B \\ \hline \Gamma \vdash ( \lambda a:A . b ) : A \to B \\ \end The judgements required to create the lambda term go above the line. In this case, only one judgement is required. It is that there is some term "b" of some type "B", assuming there is some term "a" of some type "A" and some other assumptions "\Gamma". (Note: "\Gamma" "a", "A", "b", and "B" are all metavariables in the rule.) The resulting judgement goes below the line. This rule's resulting judgement states that the new lambda term has type "A \to B" under the other assumptions \Gamma. The rules are syntactic and work by rewriting. Thus, the metavariables like "\Gamma", "a", "A", etc. may actually consist of complex terms that contain many function applications, not just single symbols. To generate a particular judgement in type theory, there must be a rule to generate it. Then, there must be rules to generate all of that rule's required inputs. And then rules for all the inputs for those rules. The applied rules form a proof tree. This is usually drawn Gentzen-style, where the target judgement (root) is at the bottom and rules that do not require any inputs (leaves) at the top. (See Natural deduction#Proofs_and_type_theory.) An example of a rule that does not require any inputs is one that states there is a term "0" of type "nat": \begin \hline \vdash 0 : nat \\ \end A type theory usually has a number of rules, including ones to: * create a context * add an assumption to the context ("weakening") * rearrange the assumptions * use an assumption to create a variable * define reflexivity, symmetry and transitivity for judgemental equality * define substitution for application of lambda terms * all the interactions of equality, substitution, etc. * define universes Also, for each "by rule" type, there are 4 different kinds of rules * "type formation" rules say how to create the type * "term introduction" rules define the canonical terms and constructor functions, like "pair" and "S". * "term elimination" rules define the other functions like "first", "second", and "R". * "computation" rules specify how computation is performed with the type-specific functions. Examples of rules:
Rules to Martin-Löf's Intuitionistic Type Theory
* Appendix A.2 o
Homotopy Type Theory
book


Properties of type theories

Terms usually belong to a single type. However, there are set theories that define "subtyping". Computation takes place by repeated application of rules. Many type theories are strongly normalizing, which means that any order of applying the rules will always end in the same result. However, some are not. In a normalizing type theory, the one-directional computation rules are called "reduction rules" and applying the rules "reduces" the term. If a rule is not one-directional, it is called a "conversion rule". Some combinations of types are equivalent to other combinations of types. When functions are considered "exponentiation", the combinations of types can be written similar to algebraic identities. Thus, + A \cong A, \times A \cong A, + \cong , A^ \cong A^B \times A^C, A^ \cong (A^B)^C.


Axioms

Most type theories do not have
axioms An axiom, postulate, or assumption is a statement that is taken to be true, to serve as a premise or starting point for further reasoning and arguments. The word comes from the Ancient Greek word (), meaning 'that which is thought worthy or f ...
. This is because a type theory is defined by its rules of inference. (See "
Rules Rule or ruling may refer to: Education * Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE), a university in Cambodia Human activity * The exercise of political or personal control by someone with authority or power * Business rule, a rule pert ...
" above). This is a source of confusion for people familiar with Set Theory, where a theory is defined by both the rules of inference for a logic (such as
first-order logic First-order logic—also known as predicate logic, quantificational logic, and first-order predicate calculus—is a collection of formal systems used in mathematics, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science. First-order logic uses quantifie ...
) and axioms about sets. Sometimes, a type theory will add a few axioms. An axiom is a judgement that is accepted without a derivation using the rules of inference. They are often added to ensure properties that cannot be added cleanly through the rules. Axioms can cause problems if they introduce terms without a way to compute on those terms. That is, axioms can interfere with the normalizing property of the type theory. Some commonly encountered axioms are: * "Axiom K" ensures "uniqueness of identity proofs". That is, that every term of an identity type is equal to reflexivity. * "Univalence Axiom" holds that equivalence of types is equality of types. The research into this property led to cubical type theory, where the property holds without needing an axiom. * "Law of Excluded Middle" is often added to satisfy users who want classical logic, instead of intuitionistic logic. The Axiom of Choice does not need to be added to type theory, because in most type theories it can be derived from the rules of inference. This is because of the constructive nature of type theory, where proving that a value exists requires a method to compute the value. The Axiom of Choice is less powerful in type theory than most set theories, because type theory's functions must be computable and, being syntax-driven, the number of terms in a type must be countable. (See .)


Decision problems

A type theory is naturally associated with the decision problem of type inhabitation.


Type inhabitation

The decision problem of ''type inhabitation'' (abbreviated by \exists e.\Gamma \vdash e : \tau?) is: :Given a type environment \Gamma and a type \tau, decide whether there exists a term e that can be assigned the type \tau in the type environment \Gamma. Girard's paradox shows that type inhabitation is strongly related to the consistency of a type system with Curry–Howard correspondence. To be sound, such a system must have uninhabited types. The opposition of terms and types can also be views as one of ''implementation'' and ''specification''. By
program synthesis In computer science, program synthesis is the task to construct a program that provably satisfies a given high-level formal specification. In contrast to program verification, the program is to be constructed rather than given; however, both fields ...
(the computational counterpart of) type inhabitation (see below) can be used to construct (all or parts of) programs from specification given in form of type information.


Type inference

Many programs that work with type theory (e.g., interactive theorem provers) also do type inferencing. It lets them select the rules that the user intends, with fewer actions by the user.


Research areas

Homotopy type theory In mathematical logic and computer science, homotopy type theory (HoTT ) refers to various lines of development of intuitionistic type theory, based on the interpretation of types as objects to which the intuition of (abstract) homotopy theory a ...
differs from
intuitionistic type theory Intuitionistic type theory (also known as constructive type theory, or Martin-Löf type theory) is a type theory and an alternative foundation of mathematics. Intuitionistic type theory was created by Per Martin-Löf, a Swedish mathematician an ...
mostly by its handling of the equality type. In 2016 cubical type theory was proposed, which is a homotopy type theory with normalization.


Interpretations

Type theory has connections to other areas of mathematics. Proponents of type theory as a foundation often mention these connections as justification for its use.


Types are propositions; terms are proofs

When used as a foundation, certain types are interpreted as propositions (statements that can be proven) and a term of the type is a proof of that proposition. Thus, the type "Π x:nat . x+1=1+x" represents that, for any "x" of type "nat", "x+1" and "1+x" are equal. And a term of that type represents its proof.


Curry-Howard correspondence

The Curry–Howard correspondence is the observed similarity between logics and programming languages. The implication in logic, "A \to B" resembles a function from type "A" to type "B". For a variety of logics, the rules are a similar to expression in a programming language's types. The similarity goes farther, as applications of the rules resemble programs in the programming languages. Thus, the correspondence is often summarized as "proofs as programs". The logic operators "
for all In mathematical logic, a universal quantification is a type of quantifier, a logical constant which is interpreted as "given any" or "for all". It expresses that a predicate can be satisfied by every member of a domain of discourse. In other w ...
" and " exists" led Per Martin-Löf to invent dependent type theory.


Intuitionistic logic

When some types are interpreted as propositions, there is a set of common types that can be used to connect them to make a logic out of types. However, that logic is not classical logic but
intuitionistic logic Intuitionistic logic, sometimes more generally called constructive logic, refers to systems of symbolic logic that differ from the systems used for classical logic by more closely mirroring the notion of constructive proof. In particular, systems ...
. That is, it does not have the
law of excluded middle In logic, the law of excluded middle (or the principle of excluded middle) states that for every proposition, either this proposition or its negation is true. It is one of the so-called three laws of thought, along with the law of noncontradi ...
nor double negation. There is a natural relation of types to logical propositions. If "A" is a type representing a proposition, being able to create a function of type "\top \to A" indicates that A has a proof and being able to create the function "A \to \bot" indicates that A does not have a proof. That is, inhabitable types are proven and uninhabitable types are disproven. ''WARNING: This interpretation can lead to a lot of confusion. A type theory may have ''terms'' "true" and "false" of type "bool", which act like a Boolean logic, and at the same time have ''types'' \top and \bot to represent "true" (provable) and "false" (disproven), as part of a intuitionistic logic for proposition.'' Under this intuitionistic interpretation, there are common types that act as the logical operators: But under this interpretation, there is no law of excluded middle. That is, there is no term of type Π A . A + (A \to \bot). Likewise, there is no double negation. There is no term of type Π A . ((A \to \bot) \to \bot) \to A. (Note: Intuitionistic logic does allow \lnot \lnot \lnot A \to \lnot A and there is a term of type (((A \to \bot) \to \bot) \to \bot) \to (A \to \bot).) Thus, the logic-of-types is an intuitionistic logic. Type theory is often cited as an implementation of the
Brouwer–Heyting–Kolmogorov interpretation In mathematical logic, the Brouwer–Heyting–Kolmogorov interpretation, or BHK interpretation, of intuitionistic logic was proposed by L. E. J. Brouwer and Arend Heyting, and independently by Andrey Kolmogorov. It is also sometimes called the rea ...
. It is possible to include the law of excluded middle and double negation into a type theory, by rule or assumption. However, terms may not compute down to canonical terms and it will interfere with the ability to determine if two terms are judgementally equal to each other.


Constructive mathematics

Per Martin-Löf proposed his intuitionistic type theory as a foundation for
constructive mathematics In the philosophy of mathematics, constructivism asserts that it is necessary to find (or "construct") a specific example of a mathematical object in order to prove that an example exists. Contrastingly, in classical mathematics, one can prove th ...
. Constructive mathematics requires when proving "There exists an x with property P(x)", there must be a particular x and a proof that it has property "P". In type theory, existence is accomplished using the dependent product type and, its proof, requires a term of that type. For the term t, "first t" will produce the x and "second t" will produce the proof of P(x). An example of a non-constructive proof is a "proof by contradiction". The first step is assuming that x does not exist and refuting it by contradiction. The conclusion from that step is "it is not the case that x does not exist". The last step is, by double negation, concluding that x exists. To be clear, constructive mathematics still allows "refute by contradiction". It can prove that "it is not the case that x does not exist". But constructive mathematics does not allow the last step of removing the double negation to conclude that x exists. Constructive mathematics has often used intutionistic logic, as evidenced by the
Brouwer–Heyting–Kolmogorov interpretation In mathematical logic, the Brouwer–Heyting–Kolmogorov interpretation, or BHK interpretation, of intuitionistic logic was proposed by L. E. J. Brouwer and Arend Heyting, and independently by Andrey Kolmogorov. It is also sometimes called the rea ...
. Most of the type theories proposed as foundations are constructive. This includes most of the ones used by proof assistants. It is possible to add non-constructive features to a type theory, by rule or assumption. These include operators on continuations such as
call with current continuation In the Scheme (programming language), Scheme computer programming language, the procedure (computer science), procedure call-with-current-continuation, abbreviated call/cc, is used as a control flow operator. It has been adopted by several other p ...
. However, these operators tend to break desirable properties such as canonicity and parametricity.


Category theory

Although the initial motivation for category theory was far removed from foundationalism, the two fields turned out to have deep connections. As
John Lane Bell John Lane Bell (born March 25, 1945) is an Anglo-Canadian philosopher, mathematician and logician. He is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Western Ontario in Canada. His research includes such topics as set theory, model theor ...
writes: "In fact categories can ''themselves'' be viewed as type theories of a certain kind; this fact alone indicates that type theory is much more closely related to category theory than it is to set theory." In brief, a category can be viewed as a type theory by regarding its objects as types (or sorts), i.e. "Roughly speaking, a category may be thought of as a type theory shorn of its syntax." A number of significant results follow in this way: * cartesian closed categories correspond to the typed λ-calculus ( Lambek, 1970); * C-monoids (categories with products and exponentials and one non-terminal object) correspond to the untyped λ-calculus (observed independently by Lambek and
Dana Scott Dana Stewart Scott (born October 11, 1932) is an American logician who is the emeritus Hillman University Professor of Computer Science, Philosophy, and Mathematical Logic at Carnegie Mellon University; he is now retired and lives in Berkeley, Ca ...
around 1980); * locally cartesian closed categories correspond to Martin-Löf type theories (Seely, 1984). The interplay, known as
categorical logic __NOTOC__ Categorical logic is the branch of mathematics in which tools and concepts from category theory are applied to the study of mathematical logic. It is also notable for its connections to theoretical computer science. In broad terms, categ ...
, has been a subject of active research since then; see the monograph of Jacobs (1999) for instance.
Homotopy type theory In mathematical logic and computer science, homotopy type theory (HoTT ) refers to various lines of development of intuitionistic type theory, based on the interpretation of types as objects to which the intuition of (abstract) homotopy theory a ...
attempts to combine type theory and category theory. It focuses on equalities, especially equalities between types.


List of type theories


Major

*
Simply typed lambda calculus The simply typed lambda calculus (\lambda^\to), a form of type theory, is a typed interpretation of the lambda calculus with only one type constructor (\to) that builds function types. It is the canonical and simplest example of a typed lambda c ...
which is a
higher-order logic mathematics and logic, a higher-order logic is a form of predicate logic that is distinguished from first-order logic by additional quantifiers and, sometimes, stronger semantics. Higher-order logics with their standard semantics are more express ...
*
intuitionistic type theory Intuitionistic type theory (also known as constructive type theory, or Martin-Löf type theory) is a type theory and an alternative foundation of mathematics. Intuitionistic type theory was created by Per Martin-Löf, a Swedish mathematician an ...
*
system F System F (also polymorphic lambda calculus or second-order lambda calculus) is a typed lambda calculus that introduces, to simply typed lambda calculus, a mechanism of universal quantification over types. System F formalizes parametric polymorph ...
* LF is often used to define other type theories *
calculus of constructions In mathematical logic and computer science, the calculus of constructions (CoC) is a type theory created by Thierry Coquand. It can serve as both a typed programming language and as constructive foundation for mathematics. For this second reason, ...
and its derivatives


Minor

* Automath * ST type theory * UTT (Luo's Unified Theory of dependent Types) * some forms of combinatory logic * others defined in the
lambda cube In mathematical logic and type theory, the λ-cube (also written lambda cube) is a framework introduced by Henk Barendregt to investigate the different dimensions in which the calculus of constructions is a generalization of the simply typed ...
(also known as
pure type system __NOTOC__ In the branches of mathematical logic known as proof theory and type theory, a pure type system (PTS), previously known as a generalized type system (GTS), is a form of typed lambda calculus that allows an arbitrary number of sorts and d ...
s) * others under the name
typed lambda calculus A typed lambda calculus is a typed formalism that uses the lambda-symbol (\lambda) to denote anonymous function abstraction. In this context, types are usually objects of a syntactic nature that are assigned to lambda terms; the exact nature of a ...


Active research

*
Homotopy type theory In mathematical logic and computer science, homotopy type theory (HoTT ) refers to various lines of development of intuitionistic type theory, based on the interpretation of types as objects to which the intuition of (abstract) homotopy theory a ...
explores equality of types * Cubical Type Theory is an implementation of homotopy type theory


Applications


Mathematical foundations

The first computer proof assistant, called Automath, used type theory to encode mathematics on a computer. Martin-Löf specifically developed
intuitionistic type theory Intuitionistic type theory (also known as constructive type theory, or Martin-Löf type theory) is a type theory and an alternative foundation of mathematics. Intuitionistic type theory was created by Per Martin-Löf, a Swedish mathematician an ...
to encode ''all'' mathematics to serve as a new foundation for mathematics. There is ongoing research into mathematical foundations using
homotopy type theory In mathematical logic and computer science, homotopy type theory (HoTT ) refers to various lines of development of intuitionistic type theory, based on the interpretation of types as objects to which the intuition of (abstract) homotopy theory a ...
. Mathematicians working in category theory already had difficulty working with the widely accepted foundation of Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory. This led to proposals such as Lawvere's Elementary Theory of the Category of Sets (ETCS). Homotopy type theory continues in this line using type theory. Researchers are exploring connections between dependent types (especially the identity type) and
algebraic topology Algebraic topology is a branch of mathematics that uses tools from abstract algebra to study topological spaces. The basic goal is to find algebraic invariants that classify topological spaces up to homeomorphism, though usually most classify ...
(specifically homotopy).


Proof assistants

Much of the current research into type theory is driven by proof checkers, interactive proof assistants, and automated theorem provers. Most of these systems use a type theory as the mathematical foundation for encoding proofs, which is not surprising, given the close connection between type theory and programming languages: * LF is used by
Twelf Twelf is an implementation of the logical framework LF developed by Frank Pfenning and Carsten Schürmann at Carnegie Mellon University. It is used for logic programming and for the formalization of programming language theory. Introduction At i ...
, often to define other type theories; * many type theories which fall under
higher-order logic mathematics and logic, a higher-order logic is a form of predicate logic that is distinguished from first-order logic by additional quantifiers and, sometimes, stronger semantics. Higher-order logics with their standard semantics are more express ...
are used by the HOL family of provers and PVS; * computational type theory is used by NuPRL; *
calculus of constructions In mathematical logic and computer science, the calculus of constructions (CoC) is a type theory created by Thierry Coquand. It can serve as both a typed programming language and as constructive foundation for mathematics. For this second reason, ...
and its derivatives are used by
Coq Coq is an interactive theorem prover first released in 1989. It allows for expressing mathematical assertions, mechanically checks proofs of these assertions, helps find formal proofs, and extracts a certified program from the constructive proof ...
,
Matita Matita is an experimental proof assistant under development at the Computer Science Department of the University of Bologna. It is a tool aiding the development of formal proofs by man-machine collaboration, providing a programming environment whe ...
, and Lean; * UTT (Luo's Unified Theory of dependent Types) is used by Agda which is both a programming language and proof assistant Many type theories are supported by LEGO and Isabelle. Isabelle also supports foundations besides type theories, such as ZFC.
Mizar Mizar is a second- magnitude star in the handle of the Big Dipper asterism in the constellation of Ursa Major. It has the Bayer designation ζ Ursae Majoris ( Latinised as Zeta Ursae Majoris). It forms a well-known naked eye ...
is an example of a proof system that only supports set theory.


Programming languages

Any
static program analysis In computer science, static program analysis (or static analysis) is the analysis of computer programs performed without executing them, in contrast with dynamic program analysis, which is performed on programs during their execution. The term ...
, such as the type checking algorithms in the semantic analysis phase of
compiler In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs tha ...
, has a connection to type theory. A prime example is Agda, a programming language which uses UTT (Luo's Unified Theory of dependent Types) for its type system. The programming language ML was developed for manipulating type theories (see LCF) and its own type system was heavily influenced by them.


Linguistics

Type theory is also widely used in formal theories of semantics of natural languages, especially Montague grammarCooper, Robin.
Type theory and semantics in flux
" Handbook of the Philosophy of Science 14 (2012): 271-323.
and its descendants. In particular,
categorial grammar Categorial grammar is a family of formalisms in natural language syntax that share the central assumption that syntactic constituents combine as functions and arguments. Categorial grammar posits a close relationship between the syntax and seman ...
s and
pregroup grammar Pregroup grammar (PG) is a grammar formalism intimately related to categorial grammars. Much like categorial grammar (CG), PG is a kind of type logical grammar. Unlike CG, however, PG does not have a distinguished function type. Rather, PG uses in ...
s extensively use type constructors to define the types (''noun'', ''verb'', etc.) of words. The most common construction takes the basic types e and t for individuals and
truth-value In logic and mathematics, a truth value, sometimes called a logical value, is a value indicating the relation of a proposition to truth, which in classical logic has only two possible values (''true'' or '' false''). Computing In some progra ...
s, respectively, and defines the set of types recursively as follows: * if a and b are types, then so is \langle a,b\rangle; * nothing except the basic types, and what can be constructed from them by means of the previous clause are types. A complex type \langle a,b\rangle is the type of functions from entities of type a to entities of type b. Thus one has types like \langle e,t\rangle which are interpreted as elements of the set of functions from entities to truth-values, i.e. indicator functions of sets of entities. An expression of type \langle\langle e,t\rangle,t\rangle is a function from sets of entities to truth-values, i.e. a (indicator function of a) set of sets. This latter type is standardly taken to be the type of natural language quantifiers, like '' everybody'' or '' nobody'' ( Montague 1973, Barwise and Cooper 1981).


Social sciences

Gregory Bateson introduced a theory of logical types into the social sciences; his notions of double bind and logical levels are based on Russell's theory of types.


See also

*
Foundations of mathematics Foundations of mathematics is the study of the philosophical and logical and/or algorithmic basis of mathematics, or, in a broader sense, the mathematical investigation of what underlies the philosophical theories concerning the nature of mathe ...


Further reading

* * * Covers type theory in depth, including polymorphic and dependent type extensions. Gives categorical semantics. * * Provides a historical survey of the developments of the theory of types with a focus on the decline of the theory as a foundation of mathematics over the four decades following the publication of the second edition of 'Principia Mathematica'. * Intended as a type theory counterpart of
Paul Halmos Paul Richard Halmos ( hu, Halmos Pál; March 3, 1916 – October 2, 2006) was a Hungarian-born American mathematician and statistician who made fundamental advances in the areas of mathematical logic, probability theory, statistics, operator ...
's (1960) ''
Naïve Set Theory Naive set theory is any of several theories of sets used in the discussion of the foundations of mathematics. Unlike axiomatic set theories, which are defined using formal logic, naive set theory is defined informally, in natural language. It de ...
'' * * * A good introduction to simple type theory for computer scientists; the system described is not exactly Church's STT though
Book review
* * *


Notes


References


External links


Introductory material


Type Theory at nLab
which has articles on many topics.
Intuitionistic Type Theory
article at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Lambda Calculus with Types
book by Henk Barendregt
Calculus of Constructions / Typed Lambda Calculus
textbook style paper by Helmut Brandl
Intuitionistic Type Theory
notes by Per Martin-Löf
Programming in Martin-Löf ’s Type Theory
book
Homotopy Type Theory
book, which proposed homotopy type theory as a mathematical foundation.


Advanced material

*
The TYPES Forum
— moderated e-mail forum focusing on type theory in computer science, operating since 1987. * tp://ftp.cs.cornell.edu/pub/nuprl/doc/book.ps.gz The Nuprl Book
Introduction to Type Theory.


of summer schools 2005–2008 ** Th

has introductory lectures

many lectures and some notes.

includin
Robert Harper's talks on YouTube



Andrej Bauer's blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Type Theory Systems of formal logic Hierarchy