-- Copyright (c) 2014 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. -- Released under Apache 2.0 license as described in the file LICENSE. -- Author: Leonardo de Moura import logic classical -- Well-founded relation definition -- We are essentially saying that a relation R is well-founded -- if every non-empty "set" P, has a R-minimal element definition wf {A : Type} (R : A → A → Bool) : Bool := ∀ P, (∃ w, P w) → ∃ min, P min ∧ ∀ b, R b min → ¬ P b -- Well-founded induction theorem theorem wf_induction {A : Type} {R : A → A → Bool} {P : A → Bool} (Hwf : wf R) (iH : ∀ x, (∀ y, R y x → P y) → P x) : ∀ x, P x := by_contradiction (assume N : ¬ ∀ x, P x, obtain (w : A) (Hw : ¬ P w), from not_forall_exists N, -- The main "trick" is to define Q x as ¬ P x. -- Since R is well-founded, there must be a R-minimal element r s.t. Q r (which is ¬ P r) let Q [inline] := λ x, ¬ P x in have Qw : ∃ w, Q w, from exists_intro w Hw, have Qwf : ∃ min, Q min ∧ ∀ b, R b min → ¬ Q b, from Hwf Q Qw, obtain (r : A) (Hr : Q r ∧ ∀ b, R b r → ¬ Q b), from Qwf, -- Using the inductive hypothesis iH and Hr, we show P r, and derive the contradiction. have s1 : ∀ b, R b r → P b, from take b : A, assume H : R b r, -- We are using Hr to derive ¬ ¬ P b not_not_elim (and_elim_right Hr b H), have s2 : P r, from iH r s1, have s3 : ¬ P r, from and_elim_left Hr, show false, from absurd s2 s3)