UIC Model Theory Seminar

The "ordinal of predicativity" and the theory of constructions

Bill Howard, UIC
April 3rd, 2007

Abstract:
An ordinal is said to be predicative if it measures the strength of a predicative formal system of analysis (ie., a system based on predicative definitions of sets of natural numbers and proofs). Kreisel, Schuette and Feferman proposed in the 1960s that a certain ordinal (Gamma_0) is the least upper bound of the predicative ordinals. This is open to controversy (see FOM last spring: Weaver vs. others). I shall examine the situation from the viewpoint of the theory of constructions.


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