Logic for Computer Science: The Engineering Challenge

Abstract

This essay is a reflection on the roles which logic played and can play in computer science. We recall the obvious merits of mathematical logic as a parent discipline of computer science, from which many fields in theoretical computer science emerged, but then address some unresolved issues in connection with the engineering tasks of computer science. We argue that logic has good perspectives here, following a tradition which is closer to Leibniz than to Hilbert and Gödel.