Lewis meets Brouwer: Constructive strict implication

Abstract

C.I. Lewis invented modern modal logic as a theory of “strict implication” ⥽. Over the classical propositional calculus one can as well work with the unary box connective. Intuitionistically, however, the strict implication has greater expressive power than □ and allows to make distinctions invisible in the ordinary syntax. In particular, the logic determined by the most popular semantics of intuitionistic K becomes a proper extension of the minimal normal logic of the binary connective. Even an extension of this minimal logic with the “strength” axiom, classically near-trivial, preserves the distinction between the binary and the unary setting. In fact, this distinction has been discovered by the functional programming community in their study of “arrows” as contrasted with “idioms”. Our particular focus is on arithmetical interpretations of intuitionistic ⥽ in terms of preservativity in extensions of HA, i.e., Heyting’s Arithmetic.