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cwzwarich | 6 months ago

Lean’s type theory extends CIC with the (global) axiom of choice, which increases consistency strength over base CIC.

discuss

order

wk_end|6 months ago

Slightly out of my depth, but per Diaconescu's theorem [0] axiom of choice implies the law of the excluded middle. Does that make Lean non-constructive?

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaconescu%27s_theorem

cvoss|6 months ago

Yes, but for an even more immediate reason. The axiom of choice itself is a non-constructive axiom. It asserts the existence of the inhabitant of a certain type, without in any way furnishing the inhabitant.

But Lean sequesters off the classical logic stuff from the default environment. You have to explicitly bring in the non-constructive tools in order to access all this. So, actually, I would disagree with GP that Lean's type system includes a choice axiom.