The foundations of functional programming languages are examined from both historical
and technical perspectives. Their evolution is traced through several critical periods: early
work on lambda calculus and combinatory calculus, Lisp, Iswim, FP, ML, and modern
functional languages such as Miranda1 and Haskell. The fundamental premises on which
the functional programming methodology stands are critically analyzed with respect to
philosophical, theoretical, and pragmatic concerns. Particular attention is paid to the
main features that characterize modern functional languages: higher-order functions,
lazy evaluation, equations and pattern matching, strong static typing and type inference,
and data abstraction. In addition, current research areas—such as parallelism,
nondeterminism, input/output, and state-oriented computations—are examined with
the goal of predicting the future development and application of functional languages.