In logic, a '''logical framework''' provides a means to define (or present) a logic as a signature in a higher-order type theory in such a way that provability of a formula in the original logic reduces to a type inhabitation problem in the framework type theory.<ref name="Jacobs2001">{{cite book|author=Bart Jacobs|title=Categorical Logic and Type Theory|year=2001|publisher=Elsevier|isbn=978-0-444-50853-9|page=598}}</ref><ref name="Gabbay1994">{{cite book|editor=Dov M. Gabbay|title=What is a logical system?|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XqCu4XjHrIQC&pg=PA382|year=1994|publisher=Clarendon Press|isbn=978-0-19-853859-2|page=382}}</ref> This approach has been used successfully for (interactive) automated theorem proving. The first logical framework was Automath; however, the name of the idea comes from the more widely known Edinburgh Logical Framework, '''LF'''. Several more recent proof tools like Isabelle are based on this idea.<ref name="Jacobs2001"/> Unlike a direct embedding, the logical framework approach allows many logics to be embedded in the same type system.<ref name="BoveBarbosa2009">{{cite book|author1=Ana Bove|author2=Luis Soares Barbosa|author3=Alberto Pardo|title=Language Engineering and Rigorous Software Development: International LerNet ALFA Summer School 2008, Piriapolis, Uruguay, February 24 - March 1, 2008, Revised, Selected Papers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YOqHiA5MYpEC&pg=PA48|year=2009|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-642-03152-6|pages=48}}</ref>

==Overview== A logical framework is based on a general treatment of syntax, rules and proofs by means of a dependently typed lambda calculus. Syntax is treated in a style similar to, but more general than Per Martin-Löf's system of arities.

To describe a logical framework, one must provide the following:

# A characterization of the class of object-logics to be represented; # An appropriate meta-language; # A characterization of the mechanism by which object-logics are represented.

This is summarized by:

:"''Framework = Language + Representation''."

==LF== In the case of the '''LF logical framework''', the meta-language is the λΠ-calculus. This is a system of first-order dependent function types which are related by the propositions as types principle to first-order minimal logic. The key features of the λΠ-calculus are that it consists of entities of three levels: objects, types and kinds (or type classes, or families of types). It is predicative, all well-typed terms are strongly normalizing and Church-Rosser and the property of being well-typed is decidable. However, type inference is undecidable.

A logic is represented in the '''LF logical framework''' by the judgements-as-types representation mechanism. This is inspired by Per Martin-Löf's development of Kant's notion of judgement, in the 1983 Siena Lectures. The two higher-order judgements, the hypothetical <math>J\vdash K</math> and the general, <math>\Lambda x\in J. K(x)</math>, correspond to the ordinary and dependent function space, respectively. The methodology of judgements-as-types is that judgements are represented as the types of their proofs. A logical system <math>{\mathcal L}</math> is represented by its signature which assigns kinds and types to a finite set of constants that represents its syntax, its judgements and its rule schemes. An object-logic's rules and proofs are seen as primitive proofs of hypothetico-general judgements <math>\Lambda x\in C. J(x)\vdash K</math>.

An implementation of the LF logical framework is provided by the Twelf system at Carnegie Mellon University. Twelf includes * a logic programming engine * meta-theoretic reasoning about logic programs (termination, coverage, etc.) * an inductive meta-logical theorem prover

==See also== * Grammatical Framework * Turnstile (symbol)

==References== {{reflist}}

==Further reading== * {{cite book|editor=Helmut Schwichtenberg, Ralf Steinbrüggen|title=Proof and system-reliability|chapter=Logical frameworks – a brief introduction|year=2002| publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-4020-0608-1|author=Frank Pfenning|url=https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~fp/papers/mdorf01.pdf}} *Robert Harper, Furio Honsell and Gordon Plotkin. ''A Framework For Defining Logics''. Journal of the Association for Computing Machinery, 40(1):143-184, 1993. *Arnon Avron, Furio Honsell, Ian Mason and Randy Pollack. ''Using typed lambda calculus to implement formal systems on a machine''. Journal of Automated Reasoning, 9:309-354, 1992. *Robert Harper. ''An Equational Formulation of LF''. Technical Report, University of Edinburgh, 1988. LFCS report ECS-LFCS-88-67. *Robert Harper, Donald Sannella and Andrzej Tarlecki. ''Structured Theory Presentations and Logic Representations''. Annals of Pure and Applied Logic, 67(1–3):113-160, 1994. *Samin Ishtiaq and David Pym. ''A Relevant Analysis of Natural Deduction''. Journal of Logic and Computation 8, 809–838, 1998. * Samin Ishtiaq and David Pym. ''Kripke Resource Models of a Dependently-typed, Bunched <math>\lambda</math>-calculus''. Journal of Logic and Computation 12(6), 1061–1104, 2002. * Per Martin-Löf. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20060104064335/http://www.hf.uio.no/filosofi/njpl/vol1no1/meaning/meaning.html On the Meanings of the Logical Constants and the Justifications of the Logical Laws]." "Nordic Journal of Philosophical Logic", 1(1): 11–60, 1996. * Bengt Nordström, Kent Petersson, and Jan M. Smith. ''Programming in Martin-Löf's Type Theory''. Oxford University Press, 1990. (The book is out of print, but [http://www.cs.chalmers.se/Cs/Research/Logic/book/ a free version] has been made available.) *David Pym. ''A Note on the Proof Theory of the <math>\lambda\Pi</math>-calculus''. Studia Logica 54: 199–230, 1995. *David Pym and Lincoln Wallen. ''Proof-search in the <math>\lambda\Pi</math>-calculus''. In: G. Huet and G. Plotkin (eds), Logical Frameworks, Cambridge University Press, 1991. *Didier Galmiche and David Pym. ''Proof-search in type-theoretic languages:an introduction''. Theoretical Computer Science 232 (2000) 5-53. *Philippa Gardner. ''Representing Logics in Type Theory''. Technical Report, University of Edinburgh, 1992. LFCS report ECS-LFCS-92-227. *Gilles Dowek. ''The undecidability of typability in the lambda-pi-calculus''. In M. Bezem, J.F. Groote (Eds.), Typed Lambda Calculi and Applications. Volume 664 of ''Lecture Notes in Computer Science'', 139–145, 1993. *David Pym. ''Proofs, Search and Computation in General Logic''. Ph.D. thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1990. *David Pym. ''A Unification Algorithm for the <math>\lambda\Pi</math>-calculus.'' International Journal of Foundations of Computer Science 3(3), 333–378, 1992.

==External links== * [https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~fp/lfs-impl.html Specific Logical Frameworks and Implementations] (a list maintained by Frank Pfenning, but mostly dead links from 1997)

Category:Logic in computer science Category:Type theory Category:Proof assistants Category:Dependently typed programming