A mapping u: X → Y between metric spaces is sequentially continuous if for each sequence (xn) converging to x ∈ X, (u(xn)) converges to u(x). It is well known in classical mathematics that a sequentially continuous mapping between metric spaces is continuous; but, as all proofs of this result involve the law of excluded middle, there appears to be a constructive distinction between sequential continuity and continuity. Although this distinction is worth exploring in its own right, there is another reason why sequential continuity is interesting to the constructive mathematician: Ishihara [8] has a version of Banach's inverse mapping theorem in functional analysis that involves the sequential continuity, rather than continuity, of the linear mappings; if this result could be upgraded by deleting the word “sequential”, then we could prove constructively the standard versions of the inverse mapping theorem and the closed graph theorem.

Troelstra [9] showed that in Brouwer's intuitionistic mathematics (INT) a sequentially continuous mapping on a separable metric space is continuous. On the other hand, Ishihara [6, 7] proved constructively that the continuity of sequentially continuous mappings on a separable metric space is equivalent to a certain boundedness principle for subsets of ℕ; in the same paper, he showed that the latter principle holds within the recursive constructive mathematics (RUSS) of the Markov School. Since it is not known whether that principle holds within Bishop's constructive mathematics (BISH), of which INT and RUSS are models and which can be regarded as the constructive core of mathematics, the exploration of sequential continuity within BISH holds some interest.