Combinatory logic
Logical formalism using combinators instead of variables
Why this is trending
Interest in “Combinatory logic” spiked on Wikipedia on 2026-02-25.
Categorised under Technology, this article fits a familiar pattern. wt.cat.technology.2
GlyphSignal tracks these patterns daily, turning raw Wikipedia traffic data into a curated feed of what the world is curious about. Every spike tells a story.
Key Takeaways
- Combinatory logic is a notation to eliminate the need for quantified variables in mathematical logic.
- It is based on combinators , which were introduced by Schönfinkel in 1920 with the idea of providing an analogous way to build up functions—and to remove any mention of variables—particularly in predicate logic.
- In mathematics Combinatory logic was originally intended as a 'pre-logic' that would clarify the role of quantified variables in logic, essentially by eliminating them.
- While the expressive power of combinatory logic typically exceeds that of first-order logic, the expressive power of predicate functor logic is identical to that of first-order logic (Quine 1960, 1966, 1976).
Combinatory logic is a notation to eliminate the need for quantified variables in mathematical logic. It was introduced by Moses Schönfinkel and Haskell Curry, and has more recently been used in computer science as a theoretical model of computation and also as a basis for the design of functional programming languages. It is based on combinators, which were introduced by Schönfinkel in 1920 with the idea of providing an analogous way to build up functions—and to remove any mention of variables—particularly in predicate logic. A combinator is a higher-order function that uses only function application and earlier defined combinators to define a result from its arguments.
In mathematics
Combinatory logic was originally intended as a 'pre-logic' that would clarify the role of quantified variables in logic, essentially by eliminating them. Another way of eliminating quantified variables is Quine's predicate functor logic. While the expressive power of combinatory logic typically exceeds that of first-order logic, the expressive power of predicate functor logic is identical to that of first-order logic (Quine 1960, 1966, 1976).
Content sourced from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0
