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A formal system of logic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2014

Hao Wang
Hao Wang*
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Extract

The main purpose of this paper is to present a formal system P in which we enjoy a smooth-running technique and which countenances a universe of classes which is symmetrical as between large and small. More exactly, P is a system which differs from the inconsistent system of [1] only in the introduction of a rather natural new restrictive condition on the defining formulas of the elements (sets, membership-eligible classes). It will be proved that if the weaker system of [2] is consistent, then P is also consistent.

After the discovery of paradoxes, it may be recalled, Russell and Zermelo in the same year proposed two different ways of safeguarding logic against contradictions (see [3], [4]). Since then various simplifications and refinements of these systems have been made. However, in the resulting systems of Zermelo set theory, generation of classes still tends to be laborious and uncertain; and in the systems of Russell's theory of types, complications in the matter of reduplication of classes and meaningfulness of formulas remain. In [2], Quine introduced a system which seems to be free from all these complications. But later it was found out that in it there appears to be an unavoidable difficulty connected with mathematical induction. Indeed, we encounter the curious situation that although we can prove in it the existence of a class V of all classes, and we can also prove particular existence theorems for each of infinitely many classes, nobody has so far contrived to prove in it that V is an infinite class or that there exists an infinite class at all.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Symbolic Logic , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , March 1950 , pp. 25 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Symbolic Logic 1951

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References

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