In
mathematical logic
Mathematical logic is the study of Logic#Formal logic, formal logic within mathematics. Major subareas include model theory, proof theory, set theory, and recursion theory (also known as computability theory). Research in mathematical logic com ...
, a judgment (or judgement) or assertion is a statement or enunciation in a
metalanguage. For example, typical judgments in
first-order logic
First-order logic, also called predicate logic, predicate calculus, or quantificational logic, is a collection of formal systems used in mathematics, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science. First-order logic uses quantified variables over ...
would be ''that a string is a
well-formed formula
In mathematical logic, propositional logic and predicate logic, a well-formed formula, abbreviated WFF or wff, often simply formula, is a finite sequence of symbols from a given alphabet that is part of a formal language.
The abbreviation wf ...
'', or ''that a proposition is true''. Similarly, a judgment may assert the occurrence of a
free variable
In mathematics, and in other disciplines involving formal languages, including mathematical logic and computer science, a variable may be said to be either free or bound. Some older books use the terms real variable and apparent variable for f ...
in an expression of the object language, or the provability of a
proposition
A proposition is a statement that can be either true or false. It is a central concept in the philosophy of language, semantics, logic, and related fields. Propositions are the object s denoted by declarative sentences; for example, "The sky ...
. In general, a judgment may be any inductively definable assertion in the
metatheory
A metatheory or meta-theory is a theory on a subject matter that is a theory in itself. Analyses or descriptions of an existing theory would be considered meta-theories. For mathematics and mathematical logic, a metatheory is a mathematical theo ...
.
Judgments are used in formalizing
deduction systems: a
logical axiom
An axiom, postulate, or assumption is a statement (logic), statement that is taken to be truth, true, to serve as a premise or starting point for further reasoning and arguments. The word comes from the Ancient Greek word (), meaning 'that whi ...
expresses a judgment, premises of a
rule of inference
Rules of inference are ways of deriving conclusions from premises. They are integral parts of formal logic, serving as norms of the Logical form, logical structure of Validity (logic), valid arguments. If an argument with true premises follows a ...
are formed as a
sequence
In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is cal ...
of judgments, and their conclusion is a judgment as well (thus, hypotheses and conclusions of proofs are judgments). A characteristic feature of the variants of
Hilbert-style deduction systems is that the ''context'' is not changed in any of their rules of inference, while both
natural deduction
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 ...
and
sequent calculus
In mathematical logic, sequent calculus is a style of formal logical argumentation in which every line of a proof is a conditional tautology (called a sequent by Gerhard Gentzen) instead of an unconditional tautology. Each conditional tautolog ...
contain some context-changing rules. Thus, if we are interested only in the
derivability of
tautologies, not hypothetical judgments, then we can formalize the Hilbert-style deduction system in such a way that its rules of inference contain only judgments of a rather simple form. The same cannot be done with the other two deductions systems: as context is changed in some of their rules of inferences, they cannot be formalized so that hypothetical judgments could be avoided—not even if we want to use them just for proving derivability of tautologies.
This basic diversity among the various calculi allows such difference, that the same basic thought (e.g.
deduction theorem
In mathematical logic, a deduction theorem is a metatheorem that justifies doing conditional proofs from a hypothesis in systems that do not explicitly axiomatize that hypothesis, i.e. to prove an implication A \to B, it is sufficient to assume A ...
) must be proven as a
metatheorem
In logic, a metatheorem is a statement about a formal system proven in a metalanguage. Unlike theorems proved within a given formal system, a metatheorem is proved within a metatheory, and may reference concepts that are present in the metatheo ...
in Hilbert-style deduction system, while it can be declared explicitly as a
rule of inference
Rules of inference are ways of deriving conclusions from premises. They are integral parts of formal logic, serving as norms of the Logical form, logical structure of Validity (logic), valid arguments. If an argument with true premises follows a ...
in
natural deduction
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 ...
.
In
type theory
In mathematics and theoretical computer science, a type theory is the formal presentation of a specific type system. Type theory is the academic study of type systems.
Some type theories serve as alternatives to set theory as a foundation of ...
, some analogous notions are used as in
mathematical logic
Mathematical logic is the study of Logic#Formal logic, formal logic within mathematics. Major subareas include model theory, proof theory, set theory, and recursion theory (also known as computability theory). Research in mathematical logic com ...
(giving rise to connections between the two fields, e.g.
Curry–Howard correspondence
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-p ...
). The abstraction in the notion of ''judgment'' in mathematical logic can be exploited also in foundation of type theory as well.
See also
*
Simply typed lambda calculus
The simply typed lambda calculus (), a form
of type theory, is a typed interpretation of the lambda calculus with only one type constructor () that builds function types. It is the canonical and simplest example of a typed lambda calculus. The ...
*
Mathematical logic
Mathematical logic is the study of Logic#Formal logic, formal logic within mathematics. Major subareas include model theory, proof theory, set theory, and recursion theory (also known as computability theory). Research in mathematical logic com ...
References
*
*
*
External links
*
*
* {{cite web , last=Martin-Löf , first=Per , author-link=Per Martin-Löf , title=On the meaning of the logical constants and the justifications of the logical laws , work=Siena Lectures , year=1983 , url=http://www.cs.cornell.edu/info/Projects/Nuprl/cs671/cs671-fa99/martin.html
Proof theory
Logical calculi
Concepts in logic