# A Tutorial Introduction to the Lambda Calculus

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1503.09060 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1503.09060/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 28 Mar 2015.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Interpretable Sentence Representation with Variational Autoencoders and Attention](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.02810/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This paper is a concise and painless introduction to the λ-calculus. This formalism was developed by Alonzo Church as a tool for studying the mathematical properties of effectively computable functions. The formalism became popular and has provided a strong theoretical foundation for the family of functional programming languages. This tutorial shows how to perform arithmetical and logical computations using the λ-calculus and how to define recursive functions, even though λ-calculus functions are unnamed and thus cannot refer explicitly to themselves.