The Semantics of Predicate Logic as a Programming Language

1976/10/01 by M. H. van Emden, Robert Kowalski · 16 citations
Computer Science · #Logic, programming, and type systems #Logic, Reasoning, and Knowledge #Formal Methods in Verification

paper · pdf · doi:10.1145/321978.321991

openalex publication_date 1976/10/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/21

Abstract

Sentences in first-order predicate logic can be usefully interpreted as programs. In this paper the operational and fixpoint semantics of predicate logic programs are defined, and the connections with the proof theory and model theory of logic are investigated. It is concluded that operational semantics is a part of proof theory and that fixpoint semantics is a special case of model-theoretic semantics.

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