. Functional languages are based on the notion of application: programs may be applied to data or programs. By application one may define algebraic functions; and a programming language is functionally complete when any algebraic function f(x 1 ,...,x n ) is representable (i.e. there is a constant a such that f(x 1 ,...,x n ) = (a . x 1 . ... . x n ). Combinatory Logic is the simplest type-free language which is functionally complete. In a sound category-theoretic framework the constant a above may be considered as an "abstract gödel-number" for f, when gödel-numberings are generalized to "principal morphisms", in suitable categories. By this, models of Combinatory Logic are categorically characterized and their relation is given to lambda-calculus models within Cartesian Closed Categories. Finally, the partial recursive functionals in any finite higher type are shown to yield models of Combinatory Logic. ________________ (+) Theoretical Computer Science, 70 (2), 1990, pp.193-211. A p...

This report contains a preprint (paper 1) and a reprint (paper 2). The first develops some epistemological views which were hinted in the second, in particular by stressing the need of a greater role of geometric insight and images in foundational studies and in approaches to cognition. The second paper is the "philosophical" part of a lecture in Type Theory, whose technical sections, omitted here, have been largely subsumed by subsequent publications (see references). The part reprinted below discusses more closely some historical remarks recalled in paper 1. 1. Reflections on formalism and reductionism in Logic and Computer Science (pp. 1 - 9)