If K is a field of finite Morley rank, then for any parameter set A ⊆ Keq the prime model over A is equal to the model-theoretic algebraic closure of A. A field of finite Morley rank eliminates imaginaries. Simlar results hold for minimal groups of finite Morley rank with infinite acl(∅).

The notion of constructibility introduced by Gödel in [2] has been generalized by Hajnal [3], [4] in order to prove the conditional independence of the generalized continuum hypothesis and related axioms. A very similar construction was used independently by Shoenfield [11], [12]2 and the author [7] to prove the conditional independence of V = L and related axioms. Here we shall prove results further in the latter direction than those in Shoenfield [12].

It is well-known that every involution in a logical or mathematical system gives rise to a theory of duality; for example, negation in the sentential calculus and predicate calculus, complementation in the calculus of classes, complementation and conversion in the calculus of relations, etc. The purpose of this note is to call attention to the fact that every involution in a logical or mathematical system gives rise to a theory of quaternality and that the square of quaternality, of which the classical squares of opposition are special cases, provides a diagrammatic representation for much of the theory of quaternality. For the sake of definiteness we expose the theory of quaternality in the context of the lower predicate calculus.

Let ϕ and ψ be formulas of the lower predicate calculus. The constants {T and F} {∧ and ∨} {→ and ⇷} {← and ⇸}{↔ and ⇹} {↑ and ↓} {∧ (all) and ∨ (some)} are dual. The constant ~ is self-dual. The negational of ϕ, denoted ϕN, is the formula obtained from ϕ by interchanging negated and unnegated variables (that is, sentence variables and predicate variables) and by interchanging dual constants. The contradual of ϕ, denoted ϕC, is the formula obtained from ϕ by interchanging negated and unnegated variables. The dual of ϕ, denoted ϕD, is the formula obtained from ϕ by interchanging dual constants. The four formulas ϕ, ϕN, ϕC, ϕD, are quaternals of each other.

We study the computability-theoretic complexity and proof-theoretic strength of the following statements: (1) “If is a well-ordering, then so is ”, and (2) “If is a well-ordering, then so is φ(α, )”, where ∝ is a fixed computable ordinal and φ represents the two-placed Veblen function. For the former statement, we show that ω iterations of the Turing jump are necessary in the proof and that the statement is equivalent to over RCA0. To prove the latter statement we need to use ωα iterations of the Turing jump, and we show that the statement is equivalent to . Our proofs are purely computability-theoretic. We also give a new proof of a result of Friedman: the statement “if is a well-ordering, then so is φ(, 0)” is equivalent to ATR0 over RCA0.

In this paper we show that it is consistent with ZFC that for any set of reals of cardinality the continuum, there is a continuous map from that set onto the closed unit interval. In fact, this holds in the iterated perfect set model. We also show that in this model every set of reals which is always of first category has cardinality less than or equal to ω1.

This paper discusses lower bounds for proof length, especially as measured by number of steps (inferences). We give the first publicly known proof of Gödel's claim that there is superrecursive (in fact, unbounded) proof speedup of (i + l)st-order arithmetic over ith-order arithmetic, where arithmetic is formalized in Hilbert-style calculi with + and • as function symbols or with the language of PRA. The same results are established for any weakly schematic formalization of higher-order logic: this allows all tautologies as axioms and allows all generalizations of axioms as axioms.

Our first proof of Gödel's claim is based on self-referential sentences: we give a second proof that avoids the use of self-reference based loosely on a method of Statman.

We define a first-order theory FIN which has a recursive axiomatization and has the following two properties. Each finite part of FIN has finite models. FIN is strong enough to develop that part of mathematics which is used or has potential applications in natural science. This work can also be regarded as a consistency proof of this hitherto informal part of mathematics. In FIN one can count every set; this permits one to prove some new probabilistic theorems.

Equivalences and translations between consequence relations abound in logic. The notion of equivalence can be denned syntactically, in terms of translations of formulas, and order-theoretically, in terms of the associated lattices of theories. W. Blok and D. Pigozzi proved in [4] that the two definitions coincide in the case of an algebraizable sentential deductive system. A refined treatment of this equivalence was provided by W. Blok and B. Jónsson in [3]. Other authors have extended this result to the cases of κ-deductive systems and of consequence relations on associative, commutative, multiple conclusion sequents. Our main result subsumes all existing results in the literature and reveals their common character. The proofs are of order-theoretic and categorical nature.

By language we understand a lower predicate calculus with identity and (perhaps) relation and function symbols. It is convenient to allow for more than one sort of variable. Now each individual constant (if there are any) is of a specified sort, the formal expressions R(t1, … tn), f(t1,…, tn) are well formed only if the terms t1, …, tn are of specified sorts determined by the relation symbol R and the function symbol f, and the term f(t1, …, tn) (if well formed) is of a sort determined by f. We admit s = t as well formed, no matter what the sorts of s and t.

A method is presented for constructing natural deduction-style systems for propositional relevant logics. The method consists in first translating formulas of relevant logics into ternary relations, and then defining deduction rules for a corresponding logic of ternary relations. Proof systems of that form are given for various relevant logics. A class of algebras of ternary relations is introduced that provides a relation-algebraic semantics for relevant logics.

By quite elementary means, one can find “large” examples difficult, if not (for practical purposes) impossible, to be managed by that host of methods, after Quine, for minimizing expressions in alternational normal form. Because the workability rather than existence of an algorithm for minimizing logical formulae is generally critical, it may be pertinent to outline briefly the derivation of these “large” examples. Some more general insight may also be gained about simplification techniques.

An ordering (≤K) on maximal almost disjoint (MAD) families closely related to destructibility of MAD families by forcing is introduced and studied. It is shown that the order has antichains of size c and decreasing chains of length c+ bellow every element. Assuming t = c a MAD family equivalent to all of its restrictions is constructed. It is also shown here that the Continuum Hypothesis implies that for every ωω-bounding forcing ℙ of size c there is a Cohen-destructible, ℙ-indestructible MAD family. Finally, two other orderings on MAD families are suggested and an old construction of Mrówka is revisited.

Early work combining recursion theory and algebra had (at least) two different sets of motivations. First the precise setting of recursion theory offered a chance to make formal classical concerns as to the effective or algorithmic nature of algebraic constructions. As an added benefit the formalization gives one the opportunity of proving that certain constructions cannot be done effectively even when the original data is presented in a recursive way. One important example of this sort of approach is the work of Frohlich and Shepardson [1955] in field theory. Another motivation for the introduction of recursion theory to algebra is given by Rabin [1960]. One hopes to mathematically enrich algebra by the additional structure provided by the notion of computability much as topological structure enriches group theory. Another example of this sort is provided in Dekker [1969] and [1971] where the added structure is that of recursive equivalence types. (This particular structural view culminates in the monograph of Crossley and Nerode [1974].)

More recently there is the work of Metakides and Nerode [1975], [1977] which combines both approaches. Thus, for example, working with vector spaces they show in a very strong way that one cannot always effectively extend a given (even recursive) independent set to a basis for a (recursive) vector space.

Effective domain theory is applied to fuzzy logic. The aim is to give suitable notions of semi-decidable and decidable L-subset and to investigate about the effectiveness of the fuzzy deduction apparatus.

In 1965, during the first All-Union Symposium on Group Theory, Kargapolov presented the following two problems: (a) describe the universal theory of free nilpotent groups of class m; (b) describe the universal theory of free groups (see [18, 1.28 and 1.27]). The first of these problems is still open and it is known [25] that a positive solution of this problem for an m ≤ 2 should imply the decidability of the universal theory of the field of the rationals (this last problem is equivalent to Hilbert's tenth problem for the field of the rationals which is a difficult open problem; see [17] and [20] for discussions on this problem). Regarding the second problem, Makanin proved in 1985 that a free group has a decidable universal theory (see [15] for stronger results), however, the problem of deriving an explicit description of the universal theory of free groups is open. To try to solve this problem Remeslennikov gave different characterization of finitely generated groups with the same universal theory as a noncyclic free group (see [21] and [22] and also [11]). Recently, the author proved in [8] that a free metabelian group has a decidable universal theory, but the proof of [8] does not give an explicit description of the universal theory of free metabelian groups.

A pointclass is a class of subsets of the Baire space (ωω) closed under inverse images by continuous functions. The dual of a pointclass Γ, denoted is {~A∣ A ∈ Γ}. (Complements are relative to ωω.) If Γ is nonselfdual, i.e. , then let . We say a nonselfdual pointclass Γ has the first separation property, and write Sep(Γ), iff (∀A, B ∈ Γ)(A ⋂ B = ∅ ⇒ (∃C ∈ Δ)(A ⊆ C ∧ B ⋂ = ∅)). The set C is said to separate A and B.

Descriptive set theory abounds in nonselfdual pointclasses Γ, and for the more natural examples of such Γ one can always show by assuming enough determinateness that exactly one of Sep(Γ) and Sep() holds. Van Wesep [2] provides a partial explanation of this fact by showing that, assuming the full axiom of determinateness, one of Sep(Γ) and Sep() must fail for all nonselfdual pointclasses Γ. We shall complete the explanation by showing that one of Sep(Γ) and Sep() must hold.

The axiom of determinateness has other interesting consequences in the general theory of pointclasses. See e.g. [3].

My aim in this paper is to propose what seems to me a distinctive approach to set theoretic methodology. By ‘methodology’ I mean the study of the actual methods used by practitioners, the study of how these methods might be justified or reformed or extended. So, for example, when the intuitionist's philosophical analysis recommends a wholesale revision of the methods of proof used in classical mathematics, this is a piece of reformist methodology. In contrast with the intuitionist, I will focus more narrowly on the methods of contemporary set theory, and, more importantly, I will certainly recommend no sweeping reforms. Rather, I begin from the assumption that the methodologist's job is to account for set theory as it is practiced, not as some philosophy would have it be. This credo lies at the very heart of the so-called ‘naturalism’ to be described here.

A philosopher looking at set theoretic practice from the outside, so to speak, might notice any number of interesting methodological questions, beginning with the intuitionist's ‘why use classical logic?’, but this sort of question is not a live issue for most practicing set theorists. One central question on which the philosopher's and the practitioner's interests converge is this: what is the status of independent statements like the continuum hypothesis (CH)? A number of large questions arise in its wake: what criteria should guide the search for new axioms? For that matter, what reasons support our adoption of the old axioms?

I am interested in extending modal calculi by adding propositional quantifiers, given by the rules for quantifier introduction: provided that p does not occur free in A.

Theories of classification distinguish classes with some good structure theorem from those for which none is possible. Some classes (dense linear orders, for instance) are non-classifiable in general, but are classifiable when we consider only countable members. This paper explores such a notion for classes of computable structures by working out a sequence of examples.

We follow recent work by Goncharov and Knight in using the degree of the isomorphism problem for a class to distinguish classifiable classes from non-classifiable. In this paper, we calculate the degree of the isomorphism problem for Abelian p-groups of bounded Ulm length. The result is a sequence of classes whose isomorphism problems are cofinal in the hyperarithmetical hierarchy. In the process, new back-and-forth relations on such groups are calculated.

Anyone who reads Aristotle, knowing something about modern logic and nothing about its history, must ask himself why the syllogistic cannot be translated as it stands into the logic of quantification. It is now more than twenty years since the invention of the requisite framework, the logic of many-sorted quantification.

In the familiar first-order predicate logic generality is expressed by means of variables and quantifiers, and each interpretation of the system is based upon the choice of some class over which the variables may range, the only restriction placed on this ‘domain of individuals’ being that it should not be empty.