Metalogic is the study of the

metatheory A metatheory or meta-theory is a theory whose subject matter is theory itself, aiming to describe existing theory in a systematic way. In mathematics and mathematical logic, a metatheory is a mathematical theory about another mathematical theory. ...

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from prem ...

. Whereas ''logic'' studies how

logical system A formal system is an abstract structure used for inferring theorems from axioms according to a set of rules. These rules, which are used for carrying out the inference of theorems from axioms, are the logical calculus of the formal system. A for ...

s can be used to construct valid and

sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by ...

argument An argument is a statement or group of statements called premises intended to determine the degree of truth or acceptability of another statement called conclusion. Arguments can be studied from three main perspectives: the logical, the dialecti ...

s, metalogic studies the properties of logical systems.Harry Gensler
Introduction to Logic
Routledge, 2001, p. 336. Logic concerns the truths that may be derived using a logical system; metalogic concerns the truths that may be derived ''about'' the

languages Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...

and systems that are used to express truths. Hunter, Geoffrey,
Metalogic: An Introduction to the Metatheory of Standard First-Order Logic
', University of California Press, 1973 The basic objects of metalogical study are formal languages, formal systems, and their interpretations. The study of interpretation of formal systems is the branch of

mathematical logic Mathematical logic is the study of formal logic within mathematics. Major subareas include model theory, proof theory, set theory, and recursion theory. Research in mathematical logic commonly addresses the mathematical properties of forma ...

that is known as

model theory In mathematical logic, model theory is the study of the relationship between theory (mathematical logic), formal theories (a collection of Sentence (mathematical logic), sentences in a formal language expressing statements about a Structure (math ...

, and the study of

deductive system A formal system is an abstract structure used for inferring theorems from axioms according to a set of rules. These rules, which are used for carrying out the inference of theorems from axioms, are the logical calculus of the formal system. A for ...

s is the branch that is known as

proof theory Proof theory is a major branchAccording to Wang (1981), pp. 3–4, proof theory is one of four domains mathematical logic, together with model theory, axiomatic set theory, and recursion theory. Barwise (1978) consists of four corresponding part ...

Overview

Formal language

A ''formal language'' is an organized set of

symbols A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different co ...

, the symbols of which precisely define it by shape and place. Such a language therefore can be defined without

reference Reference is a relationship between objects in which one object designates, or acts as a means by which to connect to or link to, another object. The first object in this relation is said to ''refer to'' the second object. It is called a '' name'' ...

to the meanings of its expressions; it can exist before any

interpretation Interpretation may refer to: Culture * Aesthetic interpretation, an explanation of the meaning of a work of art * Allegorical interpretation, an approach that assumes a text should not be interpreted literally * Dramatic Interpretation, an event ...

is assigned to it—that is, before it has any meaning.

First-order logic First-order logic—also known as predicate logic, quantificational logic, and first-order predicate calculus—is a collection of formal systems used in mathematics, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science. First-order logic uses quantifie ...

is expressed in some formal language. A formal grammar determines which symbols and sets of symbols are formulas in a formal language. A formal language can be formally defined as a set ''A'' of strings (finite sequences) on a fixed alphabet α. Some authors, including

Rudolf Carnap Rudolf Carnap (; ; 18 May 1891 – 14 September 1970) was a German-language philosopher who was active in Europe before 1935 and in the United States thereafter. He was a major member of the Vienna Circle and an advocate of logical positivism. ...

, define the language as the ordered pair <α, ''A''>.

(1958)
Introduction to Symbolic Logic and its Applications
', p. 102. Carnap also requires that each element of α must occur in at least one string in ''A''.

Formation rules

''Formation rules'' (also called ''formal grammar'') are a precise description of the

well-formed formula In mathematical logic, propositional logic and predicate logic, a well-formed formula, abbreviated WFF or wff, often simply formula, is a finite sequence of symbols from a given alphabet that is part of a formal language. A formal language can ...

s of a formal language. They are synonymous with the

set Set, The Set, SET or SETS may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Mathematics *Set (mathematics), a collection of elements *Category of sets, the category whose objects and morphisms are sets and total functions, respectively Electro ...

of strings over the

alphabet An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syllab ...

of the formal language that constitute well formed formulas. However, it does not describe their

semantics Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comput ...

(i.e. what they mean).

Formal systems

A ''formal system'' (also called a ''logical calculus'', or a ''logical system'') consists of a formal language together with a deductive apparatus (also called a ''deductive system''). The deductive apparatus may consist of a set of

transformation rule In the philosophy of logic, a rule of inference, inference rule or transformation rule is a logical form consisting of a function which takes premises, analyzes their syntax, and returns a conclusion (or conclusions). For example, the rule of in ...

s (also called ''inference rules'') or a set of

axiom An axiom, postulate, or assumption is a statement that is taken to be true, to serve as a premise or starting point for further reasoning and arguments. The word comes from the Ancient Greek word (), meaning 'that which is thought worthy or ...

s, or have both. A formal system is used to derive one expression from one or more other expressions. A ''formal system'' can be formally defined as an ordered triple <α,

\mathcal

\mathcal

d>, where

\mathcal

d is the relation of direct derivability. This relation is understood in a comprehensive

sense A sense is a biological system used by an organism for sensation, the process of gathering information about the world through the detection of stimuli. (For example, in the human body, the brain which is part of the central nervous system re ...

such that the primitive sentences of the formal system are taken as directly derivable from the

empty set In mathematics, the empty set is the unique set having no elements; its size or cardinality (count of elements in a set) is zero. Some axiomatic set theories ensure that the empty set exists by including an axiom of empty set, while in othe ...

of sentences. Direct derivability is a relation between a sentence and a finite, possibly empty set of sentences. Axioms are so chosen that every first place member of

\mathcal

d is a member of

\mathcal

and every second place member is a finite subset of

\mathcal

. A ''formal system'' can also be defined with only the relation

\mathcal

d. Thereby can be omitted

\mathcal

and α in the definitions of ''interpreted formal language'', and ''interpreted formal system''. However, this method can be more difficult to understand and use.

Formal proofs

A ''formal proof'' is a sequence of well-formed formulas of a formal language, the last of which is a

theorem In mathematics, a theorem is a statement that has been proved, or can be proved. The ''proof'' of a theorem is a logical argument that uses the inference rules of a deductive system to establish that the theorem is a logical consequence of t ...

of a formal system. The theorem is a syntactic consequence of all the well formed formulae that precede it in the proof system. For a well formed formula to qualify as part of a proof, it must result from applying a rule of the deductive apparatus of some formal system to the previous well formed formulae in the proof sequence.

Interpretations

An ''interpretation'' of a formal system is the assignment of meanings to the symbols and truth-values to the sentences of the formal system. The study of interpretations is called Formal semantics. ''Giving an interpretation'' is synonymous with ''constructing a model''.

Important distinctions

Metalanguage–object language

In metalogic, formal languages are sometimes called ''object languages''. The language used to make statements about an object language is called a ''metalanguage''. This distinction is a key difference between logic and metalogic. While logic deals with ''proofs in a formal system'', expressed in some formal language, metalogic deals with ''proofs about a formal system'' which are expressed in a metalanguage about some object language.

Syntax–semantics

In metalogic, 'syntax' has to do with formal languages or formal systems without regard to any interpretation of them, whereas, 'semantics' has to do with interpretations of formal languages. The term 'syntactic' has a slightly wider scope than 'proof-theoretic', since it may be applied to properties of formal languages without any deductive systems, as well as to formal systems. 'Semantic' is synonymous with 'model-theoretic'.

Use–mention

In metalogic, the words 'use' and 'mention', in both their noun and verb forms, take on a technical sense in order to identify an important distinction. The ''use–mention distinction'' (sometimes referred to as the ''words-as-words distinction'') is the distinction between ''using'' a word (or phrase) and ''mentioning'' it. Usually it is indicated that an expression is being mentioned rather than used by enclosing it in quotation marks, printing it in italics, or setting the expression by itself on a line. The enclosing in quotes of an expression gives us the

name A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A persona ...

of an expression, for example: :'Metalogic' is the name of this article. :This article is about metalogic.

Type–token

The ''type-token distinction'' is a distinction in metalogic, that separates an abstract concept from the objects which are particular instances of the concept. For example, the particular bicycle in your garage is a token of the type of thing known as "The bicycle." Whereas, the bicycle in your garage is in a particular place at a particular time, that is not true of "the bicycle" as used in the sentence: "''The bicycle'' has become more popular recently." This distinction is used to clarify the meaning of

formal language In logic, mathematics, computer science, and linguistics, a formal language consists of words whose letters are taken from an alphabet and are well-formed according to a specific set of rules. The alphabet of a formal language consists of sym ...

History

Metalogical questions have been asked since the time of

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ...

. However, it was only with the rise of formal languages in the late 19th and early 20th century that investigations into the foundations of logic began to flourish. In 1904,

David Hilbert David Hilbert (; ; 23 January 1862 – 14 February 1943) was a German mathematician, one of the most influential mathematicians of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Hilbert discovered and developed a broad range of fundamental ideas in many ...

observed that in investigating the

foundations of mathematics Foundations of mathematics is the study of the philosophical and logical and/or algorithmic basis of mathematics, or, in a broader sense, the mathematical investigation of what underlies the philosophical theories concerning the nature of mathe ...

that logical notions are presupposed, and therefore a simultaneous account of metalogical and metamathematical principles was required. Today, metalogic and metamathematics are largely synonymous with each other, and both have been substantially subsumed by

in academia. A possible alternate, less mathematical model may be found in the writings of

Charles Sanders Peirce Charles Sanders Peirce ( ; September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American philosopher, logician, mathematician and scientist who is sometimes known as "the father of pragmatism". Educated as a chemist and employed as a scientist for ...

and other semioticians.

Results

Results in metalogic consist of such things as

formal proof In logic and mathematics, a formal proof or derivation is a finite sequence of sentences (called well-formed formulas in the case of a formal language), each of which is an axiom, an assumption, or follows from the preceding sentences in the seq ...

s demonstrating the

consistency In classical deductive logic, a consistent theory is one that does not lead to a logical contradiction. The lack of contradiction can be defined in either semantic or syntactic terms. The semantic definition states that a theory is consistent ...

, completeness, and decidability of particular

formal system A formal system is an abstract structure used for inferring theorems from axioms according to a set of rules. These rules, which are used for carrying out the inference of theorems from axioms, are the logical calculus of the formal system. A fo ...

s. Major results in metalogic include: * Proof of the uncountability of the

power set In mathematics, the power set (or powerset) of a set is the set of all subsets of , including the empty set and itself. In axiomatic set theory (as developed, for example, in the ZFC axioms), the existence of the power set of any set is post ...

of the

natural number In mathematics, the natural numbers are those numbers used for counting (as in "there are ''six'' coins on the table") and ordering (as in "this is the ''third'' largest city in the country"). Numbers used for counting are called '' cardinal ...

s ( Cantor's theorem 1891) *

Löwenheim–Skolem theorem In mathematical logic, the Löwenheim–Skolem theorem is a theorem on the existence and cardinality of models, named after Leopold Löwenheim and Thoralf Skolem. The precise formulation is given below. It implies that if a countable first-ord ...

( Leopold Löwenheim 1915 and Thoralf Skolem 1919) * Proof of the consistency of truth-functional

propositional logic Propositional calculus is a branch of logic. It is also called propositional logic, statement logic, sentential calculus, sentential logic, or sometimes zeroth-order logic. It deals with propositions (which can be true or false) and relations b ...

(

Emil Post Emil Leon Post (; February 11, 1897 – April 21, 1954) was an American mathematician and logician. He is best known for his work in the field that eventually became known as computability theory. Life Post was born in Augustów, Suwałki Gove ...

1920) * Proof of the semantic completeness of truth-functional propositional logic (

Paul Bernays Paul Isaac Bernays (17 October 1888 – 18 September 1977) was a Swiss mathematician who made significant contributions to mathematical logic, axiomatic set theory, and the philosophy of mathematics. He was an assistant and close collaborator of ...

1918),Hao Wang
Reflections on Kurt Gödel
/ref> (Emil Post 1920) * Proof of the syntactic completeness of truth-functional propositional logic (Emil Post 1920) * Proof of the decidability of truth-functional propositional logic (Emil Post 1920) * Proof of the consistency of first-order monadic predicate logic ( Leopold Löwenheim 1915) * Proof of the semantic completeness of first-order monadic predicate logic (Leopold Löwenheim 1915) * Proof of the decidability of first-order monadic predicate logic (Leopold Löwenheim 1915) * Proof of the consistency of first-order predicate logic (

and Wilhelm Ackermann 1928) * Proof of the semantic completeness of first-order predicate logic (

Gödel's completeness theorem Gödel's completeness theorem is a fundamental theorem in mathematical logic that establishes a correspondence between semantic truth and syntactic provability in first-order logic. The completeness theorem applies to any first-order theory: ...

1930) * Proof of the cut-elimination theorem for the sequent calculus ( Gentzen's ''Hauptsatz'' 1934) * Proof of the undecidability of first-order predicate logic (

Church's theorem In mathematics and computer science, the ' (, ) is a challenge posed by David Hilbert and Wilhelm Ackermann in 1928. The problem asks for an algorithm that considers, as input, a statement and answers "Yes" or "No" according to whether the stat ...

1936) * Gödel's first incompleteness theorem 1931 * Gödel's second incompleteness theorem 1931 *

Tarski's undefinability theorem Tarski's undefinability theorem, stated and proved by Alfred Tarski in 1933, is an important limitative result in mathematical logic, the foundations of mathematics, and in formal semantics. Informally, the theorem states that ''arithmetical trut ...

(Gödel and Tarski in the 1930s)

References

External links

* * {{Metalogic Mathematical logic Metaphilosophy