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This may well have been the origin of Russell’s notation xΦ(x) for the class of objects that have the property Φ. According to a paper by J. B. Rosser [128], the notation xΦ(x) has been at the basis of the current notation λx Φ in the λ-calculus. Church is supposed to have written ΛxΦ(x) for the function x ↦ Φ(x) writing the hat in front of the x in order to distinguish this function from the class xΦ(x) For typographical reasons, the Λ is supposed to have changed into a λ On the other hand, J. P. Seldin informed us [135] that he had asked Church about it in 1982, and that Church had answered that there was no particular reason for choosing λ that some letter was needed and λ happened to have been chosen. Moreover, Curry had told him that Church had a manuscript in which there were many occurrences of λ already in 1929, so three years before the paper [27] appeared.
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(2005). Prehistory. In: A Modern Perspective on Type Theory. Applied Logic Series, vol 29. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-2335-9_2
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