Toward Logic Tailored for Computational Complexity

  • Yuri Gurevich

"Computation and Proof Theory" (Ed. M. Richter et al.) Springer Lecture Notes in Math | , Vol 1104: pp. 175-216

The pathos of this paper is that classical logic, developed to confront the infinite, is ill prepared to deal with finite structures whereas finite structures, e.g. databases, are of so much importance in computer science. We show that famous theorems about first-order logic fail in the finite case, and discuss various alternatives to classical logic. The message has been heard.