Serial Properties, Selector Proofs, and the Provability of Consistency

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Author: Artemov, Sergei
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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_version_ 1866911802807287808
author Artemov, Sergei
author_facet Artemov, Sergei
contents For Hilbert, the consistency of a formal theory T is an infinite series of statements "D is free of contradictions" for each derivation D and a consistency proof is i) an operation that, given D, yields a proof that D is free of contradictions, and ii) a proof that (i) works for all inputs D. Hilbert's two-stage approach to proving consistency naturally generalizes to the notion of a finite proof of a series of sentences in a given theory. Such proofs, which we call selector proofs, have already been tacitly employed in mathematics. Selector proofs of consistency, including Hilbert's epsilon substitution method, do not aim at deriving the Gödelian consistency formula Con(T) and are thus not precluded by Gödel's second incompleteness theorem. We give a selector proof of consistency of Peano Arithmetic PA and formalize this proof in PA.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_12272
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Serial Properties, Selector Proofs, and the Provability of Consistency
Artemov, Sergei
Logic
03A05, 03B30, 03F03, 03F07, 03F30, 03F40
F.3.0; F.4.0; F.4.1; I.2.0; I.2.3
For Hilbert, the consistency of a formal theory T is an infinite series of statements "D is free of contradictions" for each derivation D and a consistency proof is i) an operation that, given D, yields a proof that D is free of contradictions, and ii) a proof that (i) works for all inputs D. Hilbert's two-stage approach to proving consistency naturally generalizes to the notion of a finite proof of a series of sentences in a given theory. Such proofs, which we call selector proofs, have already been tacitly employed in mathematics. Selector proofs of consistency, including Hilbert's epsilon substitution method, do not aim at deriving the Gödelian consistency formula Con(T) and are thus not precluded by Gödel's second incompleteness theorem. We give a selector proof of consistency of Peano Arithmetic PA and formalize this proof in PA.
title Serial Properties, Selector Proofs, and the Provability of Consistency
topic Logic
03A05, 03B30, 03F03, 03F07, 03F30, 03F40
F.3.0; F.4.0; F.4.1; I.2.0; I.2.3
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.12272