Zeroeth order logic as a non-deterministic computation.

The satisfiability version of the tableau method for zeroeth order logic can be viewed as a non-deterministic algorithm.

If the algorithm can terminate successfully then the statement is satisfiable.

In this case, unlike many non-deterministic computations, the algorithm will always terminate, successfully or not.

Similar remarks apply to proving tautologies, but we start with the statement to the right of the line and “success” and “failure” mean the opposite of what you’d expect.

The Łukasiewicz formal system or, more generally, any axiomatic system can also be considered a non-deterministic algorithm.

The given statement is a theorem if the algorithm can terminate successfully.

One complication is that substitution allows replacement of a variable by any expression and there are infinitely many expressions, so again we have to consider trees where some nodes may have infinitely many children.