Generalization of terms via universal algebra
This work addresses foundational issues in universal algebra and logic, offering a theoretical framework for generalization problems, but it appears incremental as it builds on existing algebraic concepts without broad practical applications.
The paper tackles the problem of generalizing terms up to equational theories by providing a new foundational approach using universal algebra, proving that the generality poset and its type can be studied in this setting, and applying results to varieties like abelian groups and Boolean algebras, with examples including unitary type for many and nullary type for MV-algebras.
We provide a new foundational approach to the generalization of terms up to equational theories. We interpret generalization problems in a universal-algebraic setting making a key use of projective and exact algebras in the variety associated to the considered equational theory. We prove that the generality poset of a problem and its type (i.e., the cardinality of a complete set of least general solutions) can be studied in this algebraic setting. Moreover, we identify a class of varieties where the study of the generality poset can be fully reduced to the study of the congruence lattice of the 1-generated free algebra. We apply our results to varieties of algebras and to (algebraizable) logics. In particular we obtain several examples of unitary type: abelian groups; commutative monoids and commutative semigroups; all varieties whose 1-generated free algebra is trivial, e.g., lattices, semilattices, varieties without constants whose operations are idempotent; Boolean algebras, Kleene algebras, and Gödel algebras, which are the equivalent algebraic semantics of, respectively, classical, 3-valued Kleene, and Gödel-Dummett logic. Finally, we prove that the variety of MV-algebras, the equivalent algebraic semantics of Lukasiewicz logic, has nullary type.