Combining Philosophers

Ideas for Eucleides, Marcus Rossberg and Feferman / Feferman

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6 ideas

5. Theory of Logic / J. Model Theory in Logic / 1. Logical Models
A structure is a 'model' when the axioms are true. So which of the structures are models? [Feferman/Feferman]
     Full Idea: A structure is said to be a 'model' of an axiom system if each of its axioms is true in the structure (e.g. Euclidean or non-Euclidean geometry). 'Model theory' concerns which structures are models of a given language and axiom system.
     From: Feferman / Feferman (Alfred Tarski: life and logic [2004], Int V)
     A reaction: This strikes me as the most interesting aspect of mathematical logic, since it concerns the ways in which syntactic proof-systems actually connect with reality. Tarski is the central theoretician here, and his theory of truth is the key.
Tarski and Vaught established the equivalence relations between first-order structures [Feferman/Feferman]
     Full Idea: In the late 1950s Tarski and Vaught defined and established basic properties of the relation of elementary equivalence between two structures, which holds when they make true exactly the same first-order sentences. This is fundamental to model theory.
     From: Feferman / Feferman (Alfred Tarski: life and logic [2004], Int V)
     A reaction: This is isomorphism, which clarifies what a model is by giving identity conditions between two models. Note that it is 'first-order', and presumably founded on classical logic.
A model is a domain, and an interpretation assigning objects, predicates, relations etc. [Rossberg]
     Full Idea: A standard model is a set of objects called the 'domain', and an interpretation function, assigning objects in the domain to names, subsets to predicate letters, subsets of the Cartesian product of the domain with itself to binary relation symbols etc.
     From: Marcus Rossberg (First-order Logic, 2nd-order, Completeness [2004], §3)
     A reaction: The model actually specifies which objects have which predicates, and which objects are in which relations. Tarski's account of truth in terms of 'satisfaction' seems to be just a description of those pre-decided facts.
5. Theory of Logic / J. Model Theory in Logic / 2. Isomorphisms
If models of a mathematical theory are all isomorphic, it is 'categorical', with essentially one model [Rossberg]
     Full Idea: A mathematical theory is 'categorical' if, and only if, all of its models are isomorphic. Such a theory then essentially has just one model, the standard one.
     From: Marcus Rossberg (First-order Logic, 2nd-order, Completeness [2004], §3)
     A reaction: So the term 'categorical' is gradually replacing the much-used phrase 'up to isomorphism'.
5. Theory of Logic / J. Model Theory in Logic / 3. Löwenheim-Skolem Theorems
Löwenheim-Skolem says if the sentences are countable, so is the model [Feferman/Feferman]
     Full Idea: The Löwenheim-Skolem Theorem, the earliest in model theory, states that if a countable set of sentences in a first-order language has a model, then it has a countable model.
     From: Feferman / Feferman (Alfred Tarski: life and logic [2004], Int V)
     A reaction: There are 'upward' (sentences-to-model) and 'downward' (model-to-sentences) versions of the theory.
Löwenheim-Skolem Theorem, and Gödel's completeness of first-order logic, the earliest model theory [Feferman/Feferman]
     Full Idea: Before Tarski's work in the 1930s, the main results in model theory were the Löwenheim-Skolem Theorem, and Gödel's establishment in 1929 of the completeness of the axioms and rules for the classical first-order predicate (or quantificational) calculus.
     From: Feferman / Feferman (Alfred Tarski: life and logic [2004], Int V)