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In mathematics, higher-order logic is distinguished from first-order logic in a number of ways.

One of these is the type of variables appearing in quantifications; in first-order logic, roughly speaking, it is forbidden to quantify over predicates. See second-order logic for systems in which this is permitted.

Another way in which higher-order logic differs from first-order logic is in the constructions allowed in the underlying type theory. A higher-order predicate is a predicate that takes one or more other predicates as arguments. In general, a higher-order predicate of order n takes one or more (n − 1)th-order predicates as arguments, where n > 1. A similar remark holds for higher-order functions.

Higher-order logics are more expressive, but their properties, in particular with respect to model theory, make them less well-behaved for many applications. By a result of Gödel, classical higher-order logic does not admit a (recursively axiomatized) sound and complete proof calculus; however, such a proof calculus does exist which is sound and complete with respect to Henkin models.

Examples of higher order logics include the Church's Simple Theory of Types and calculus of constructions.

• Higher-order grammar
• Typed lambda calculus
• Intuitionistic Type Theory
• Many-sorted logic

• Miller, Dale, 1991, "Logic: Higher-order," Encyclopedia of Artificial Intelligence, 2nd ed.

• Andrews, P.B., 2002. An Introduction to Mathematical Logic and Type Theory: To Truth Through Proof, 2nd ed. Kluwer Academic Publishers, available from Springer.
• Church, Alonzo, 1940, "A Formulation of the Simple Theory of Types," Journal of Symbolic Logic 5: 56-68.
• Henkin, Leon, 1950, "Completeness in the Theory of Types," Journal of Symbolic Logic 15: 81-91.
• Stewart Shapiro, 1991, "Foundations Without Foundationalism: A Case for Second-Order Logic". Oxford University Press.
• Stewart Shapiro, 2001, "Classical Logic II: Higher Order Logic," in Lou Goble, ed., The Blackwell Guide to Philosophical Logic. Blackwell.
• Lambek, J. and Scott, P. J., 1986. Introduction to Higher Order Categorical Logic, Cambridge University Press.