The classic book that inspired Alan Turing and helped to lay the
foundation for theoretical computer science
This book provides a concise introduction to the calculi of
lambda-conversion first discovered by Alonzo Church and developed by him
in collaboration with his students, S. C. Kleene and J. B. Rosser. The
first four chapters present the calculus of lambda-conversion in detail,
with subsequent chapters discussing the calculus of λ-K-conversion,
the calculus of restricted λ-K-conversion, and the calculus of
λ-δ-conversion, as well as the applications of the latter to symbolic
logic. Gödel numbers are presented using simplified notation, and the
fundamental Church-Rosser consistency theorem is discussed in full. This
influential book is one that attracted the interest of Alan Turing-who
later completed his PhD under Church's supervision-and is widely
credited with helping to usher in the modern age of computer science.
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