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Richard Zach

Publications and source records attributed to Richard Zach.

25 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2003

Hilbert's "Verunglueckter Beweis," the first epsilon theorem, and consistency proofs

In the 1920s, Ackermann and von Neumann, in pursuit of Hilbert's Programme, were working on consistency proofs for arithmetical systems. One proposed method of giving such proofs is Hilbert's epsilon-substitution method. There was, however, a second approach which was not reflected in the publications of the Hilbert school in the 1920s, and which is a direct precursor of Hilbert's first epsilon theorem and a certain 'general consistency result' due to Bernays. An analysis of the form of this so-called 'failed proof' sheds further light on an interpretation of Hilbert's Programme as an instrumentalist enterprise with the aim of showing that whenever a `real' proposition can be proved by 'ideal' means, it can also be proved by 'real', finitary means.

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arXiv2002

Approximating Propositional Calculi by Finite-valued Logics

Bernays introduced a method for proving underivability results in propositional calculi by truth tables. In general, this motivates an investigations of how to find, given a propositional logic, a finite-valued logic which has as few tautologies as possible, but which has all the valid formulas of the given logic as tautologies. It is investigated how far this method can be carried using (1) one or (2) an infinite sequence of finite-valued logics. It is shown that the best candidate matrices for (1) can be computed from a calculus, and how sequences for (2) can be found for certain classes of logics (including, in particular, logics characterized by Kripke semantics).

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arXiv2002

Decidability of quantified propositional intuitionistic logic and S4 on trees

Quantified propositional intuitionistic logic is obtained from propositional intuitionistic logic by adding quantifiers \forall p, \exists p over propositions. In the context of Kripke semantics, a proposition is a subset of the worlds in a model structure which is upward closed. Kremer (1997) has shown that the quantified propositional intuitionistic logic Hπ+ based on the class of all partial orders is recursively isomorphic to full second-order logic. He raised the question of whether the logic resulting from restriction to trees is axiomatizable. It is shown that it is, in fact, decidable. The methods used can also be used to establish the decidability of modal S4 with propositional quantification on similar types of Kripke structures.

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arXiv2001

The Practice of Finitism: Epsilon Calculus and Consistency Proofs in Hilbert's Program

After a brief flirtation with logicism in 1917-1920, David Hilbert proposed his own program in the foundations of mathematics in 1920 and developed it, in concert with collaborators such as Paul Bernays and Wilhelm Ackermann, throughout the 1920s. The two technical pillars of the project were the development of axiomatic systems for ever stronger and more comprehensive areas of mathematics and finitistic proofs of consistency of these systems. Early advances in these areas were made by Hilbert (and Bernays) in a series of lecture courses at the University of Goettingen between 1917 and 1923, and notably in Ackermann's dissertation of 1924. The main innovation was the invention of the epsilon-calculus, on which Hilbert's axiom systems were based, and the development of the epsilon-substitution method as a basis for consistency proofs. The paper traces the development of the "simultaneous development of logic and mathematics" through the epsilon-notation and provides an analysis of Ackermann's consistency proofs for primitive recursive arithmetic and for the first comprehensive mathematical system, the latter using the substitution method. It is striking that these proofs use transfinite induction not dissimilar to that used in Gentzen's later consistency proof as well as non-primitive recursive definitions, and that these methods were accepted as finitistic at the time.

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arXiv2000

Quantified propositional Goedel logics

It is shown that G-up, the quantified propositional Goedel-Dummett logic based on the truth-values set V-up = {1 - 1/n : n >= 1} u {1}, is decidable. This result is obtained by reduction to Buechi's theory S1S. An alternative proof based on elimination of quantifiers is also given, which yields both an axiomatization and a characterization of G-up as the intersection of all finite-valued quantified propositional Goedel logics.

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arXiv2000

Hypersequents and the Proof Theory of Intuitionistic Fuzzy Logic

Takeuti and Titani have introduced and investigated a logic they called intuitionistic fuzzy logic. This logic is characterized as the first-order Goedel logic based on the truth value set [0,1]. The logic is known to be axiomatizable, but no deduction system amenable to proof-theoretic, and hence, computational treatment, has been known. Such a system is presented here, based on previous work on hypersequent calculi for propositional Goedel logics by Avron. It is shown that the system is sound and complete, and allows cut-elimination. A question by Takano regarding the eliminability of the Takeuti-Titani density rule is answered affirmatively.

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