Proof Theory 2015/2016

This is the website for the course ``Proof Theory'' which will be offered at the University of Amsterdam in Fall 2015.

Exercise sheets and information about the contents of the lectures can be found here.
Homework sheets and information about grading can be found here.

Teaching staff

• Lecturer: Benno van den Berg
  Email: bennovdberg@gmail.com
  Room: ILLC, Science Park F2.43
• Teaching assistant: Giovanni Cina
  Email: giovanni.cina88@gmail.com
  Room: ILLC, Science Park F2.26

Practical details

Lectures and exercises classes will take place from week 44 till week 50. The first meeting will be the lecture on 26 October. Week 51 is exam week and the exam will take place on December 14, 9:00-12:00 in SP F1.02.

There will be two lectures per week and these will take place on Mondays 9:00-11:00 and Tuesdays 15:00-17:00.

In addition, there will be two exercises classes per week, one on Monday 11:00-13:00 (from 2 November onwards) and one on Wednesday 13:00-15:00 (from 28 October onwards). These exercise classes are an integral part of the course. On Wednesdays one works on an exercise sheet under the guidance of the teaching assistant (these sheets will appear here). In addition, there will be six homework sheets which influence your final grade for the course (more information about the homework can be found here). Starting from Tuesday 9 Nov the exercise classes on Monday will be devoted to handing back and discussing the homework.

The weekly schedule is as follows:

• Monday: lecture from 9:00-11:00 in SP G3.10, followed (from 2 November onwards) by an exercise class from 11:00-13:00 also in SP G3.10.
• Tuesday: lecture from 15:00-17:00 in SP D1.115.
• Wednesday: exercise class from 13:00-15:00 in SP G0.23-G0.25.

Study materials

• Handouts.
• S.R. Buss, An Introduction to Proof Theory. Chapter 1 from Handbook of Proof Theory, edited by S.R. Buss. Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1998. Available here.

Other sources:

• A.S. Troelstra and H. Schwichtenberg. Basic Proof Theory. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000.
• J.-Y. Girard. Proofs and Types. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1989. Translated and with appendices by Paul Taylor and Yves Lafont. Available here.

References on signed formulae, Hintikka sets and consistency properties:

• M.C. Fitting, Proof methods for modal and intuitionistic logics. Synthese Library, 169. D. Reidel Publishing Co., Dordrecht-Boston, Mass., 1983.
• R.M. Smullyan, First-order logic. Springer-Verlag, New York, 1968. Cheap reprint published by Dover.

Prerequisites

Some background knowledge in logic and mathematical maturity is required, but nothing beyond what could reasonably be expected from a student of mathematics or logic at MSc level (for example, at the level of the ILLC's Basic Logic course).

To teaching page.