In this paper, an extension of Pure Type Systems (PTS's) with definitions is presented. We prove this extension preserves many of the properties of PTS's. The main result is a proof that for many PTS's, including the Calculus of Constructions, this extension preserves strong normalisation.

In Russell's Ramified Theory of Types rtt, two hierarchical concepts dominate: orders and types. The use of orders has as a consequence that the logic part of rtt is predicative. The concept of order however, is almost dead since Ramsey eliminated it from rtt. This is why we find Church's simple theory of types (which uses the type concept without the order one) at the bottom of the Barendregt Cube rather than rtt. Despite the disappearance of orders which have a strong correlation with predicativity, predicative logic still plays an influential role in Computer Science. An important example is the proof checker Nuprl, which is based on Martin-Löf's Type Theory which uses type universes. Those type universes, and also degrees of expressions in Automath, are closely related to orders. In this paper, we show that orders have not disappeared from modern logic and computer science, rather, orders play a crucial role in understanding the hierarchy of modern systems. In order to achieve our goal, we concentrate on a subsystem of Nuprl. The novelty of our paper lies in: 1) a modest revival of Russell's orders, 1 2) the placing of the historical system rtt underlying the famous Principia Mathematica in a context with a modern system of computer mathematics (Nuprl) and modern type theories (Martin-Löf's type theory and PTSs), and 3) the presentation of a complex type system (Nuprl) as a simple and compact PTS.

Extending the -calculus with either explicit substitution or generalised reduction has been the subject of extensive research recently which still has many open problems. Due to this reason, the properties of a calculus combining both generalised reduction and explicit substitutions have never been studied. This paper presents such a calculus sg and shows that it is a desirable extension of the -calculus. In particular, we show that sg preserves strong normalisation, is sound and it simulates classical fi-reduction. Furthermore, we study the simply typed -calculus extended with both generalised reduction and explicit substitution and show that well-typed terms are strongly normalising and that other properties such as subtyping and subject reduction hold. 1 Introduction 1.1 The -calculus with generalised reduction In (( x : y :N)P )Q, the function starting with x and the argument P result in the redex ( x : y :N)P which when contracted will turn the function starting with y and Q i...