Little Theories

William M. Farmer, Joshua D. Guttman, F. Javier Thayer

1992

Abstract

In the "little theories" version of the axiomatic method, different
portions of mathematics are developed in various different formal
axiomatic theories.  Axiomatic theories may be related by inclusion or
by theory interpretation.  We argue that the little theories approach
is a desirable way to formalize mathematics, and we describe how IMPS,
an Interactive Mathematical Proof System, supports it.