Institutional semantics for many-valued logics (Q2450647)

The concept of institution of [\textit{J. A. Goguen} and \textit{R. M. Burstall}, Lect. Notes Comput. Sci. 164, 221--256 (1984; Zbl 0543.68021)] provides a precise generalization (based in category theory) of the informal notion of ``logical system'' in order to show that some parts of computer science can be done in any suitable logical system. As an example of institutions, one can mention many-sorted equational logic as well as (many-sorted) first-order logic with equality. The present paper provides a many-valued generalization of institutions (Section 3 on pages 37--42), in order to include many-valued logical systems over a residuated lattice [\textit{P. Hájek}, Metamathematics of fuzzy logic. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers (1998; Zbl 0937.03030)] (another institutional generalization in the same direction can be found in [\textit{P. Eklund} and \textit{R. Helgesson}, Fuzzy Sets Syst. 161, No. 18, 2354--2368 (2010; Zbl 1229.03062)], which relies on the machinery of partially ordered monads). In particular, the author shows that his new institutional framework (conservatively) embeds a fuzzy extension of multi-algebras as well as traditional first-order many-valued logic (Section 4 on pages 42--48). The paper concludes with two important properties of many-valued institutions, namely, model amalgamation (Subsection 5.1 on pages 48--49) and the method of diagrams (Subsection 5.2 on pages 49--51), the latter introduced by the author in [\textit{R. Diaconescu}, J. Log. Comput. 14, No. 5, 651--674 (2004; Zbl 1104.03036)]. The paper is well-written, but is quite technical in nature (which can cause a problem for the first reading), and will certainly require from its reader a considerable background on institutions and their methods.