Re: Turing completeness of the functional paradigm?

On 19 Jul 2005 17:07:49 -0700, Keith Ramsay <kramsay@xxxxxxx> said:
> Formalism is syntactic. The notion of "definition" is semantic. So
> while it's true that the syntax doesn't "force" a sematics on us,
> because it's true in general, I wouldn't say that it's a special
> problem for the natural numbers.
>
> When people refer to a formalism as defining something, they tend to
> mean the formalism accompanied by its usual semantics. There are
> plenty of formalisms that when interpreted in a standard way permit
> one to define the natural numbers.

I of course agree with this.

Chris Menzel

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