On Tue, Aug 23, 2011 at 10:58 AM, Ezra Cooper <ezra@ezrakilty.net> wrote:
An algebra is a specific kind of structure which is itself formalized mathematically. I've never seen a formalization of the notion of "a calculus" and I believe it to be a looser term, as KC defined it.

Specifically, an algebra consists of a set (or several "sorts" of sets) and operations that reduce pairs of elements from that set (or the pairs can be triples, etc.) back into the set. Usually that set corresponds to the "semantics" of the algebra, and syntactic equations like xy = yx exist in a different realm from the operations and their actions. 

Lambda calculus differs from an algebra by having a construct (lambda abstraction) that only makes sense if you know the syntactic structure of the term it applies to. That is, it has a binding construct. You could define lambda calculus as an algebra by taking the underlying set to be the syntax of the calculus itself, but that would require infinitely many operations (a lambda-binder for each variable) and equations, so perhaps that would be awkward.

Pi calculus, like lambda calculus, has binders, while "process algebras" are usually defined via operations on processes. I believe this to be a general trait of things described as "calculi"--that they have some form of name-binders, but I have never seen that observation written down.

I'm sure that an algebraist could give a more definite answer about this.

Aside from "the calculus", a calculus is just a language with syntactic rules of inference/deduction.  Indeed, "the calculus" was a calculus in this sense way back when, before Riemann formalized the subject with deltas and epsilons (that is, arguments about sequences and limits).  I am referring to the syntactic rules for manipulating derivatives and integrals which Liebniz invented, such as "formal cancellation of derivatives":  dy/dx * dz/dy = dz/dx

An algebra is a model for a language that quantifies over objects and function symbols on objects.  For example, the "symmetric group S4" is an algebra that models the symmetric group axioms.