[Revised entry by Walter Dean and Alberto Naibo on March 1, 2024.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography, ackermann-peter.html, notes.html]
The recursive functions are a class of functions on the natural numbers studied in computability theory, a branch of contemporary mathematical logic which was originally known as recursive function theory. Such functions take their name from the process of recursion by which the value of a function is defined by the application of the same function applied to smaller arguments….

Originally appeared on Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Read More